The Civil Justice Scholarship Award, bestowed periodically to published legal academics, recognizes current, scholarly legal research and writing focused on topics in civil justice, including access to justice and the benefits of the U.S. civil justice system, as well as the right to trial by jury in civil cases.
Nomination Deadline: September 13, 2021 Award Criteria / Nomination Form2022 Winners — Fitzpatrick and Frankel
Professor Fitzpatrick, of Vanderbilt Law School, is recognized for his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (U. Chicago Press, 2020). In the book, he defends class action lawsuits against their most powerful critics: political conservatives, corporations, and related institutions. Fitzpatrick convincingly argues that class actions are the most effective way of enforcing laws that ensure a well-functioning market, including laws against corporate misconduct. He also analyzes many potential problems with class actions and potential ways to improve them.
Professor Frankel, of Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law, is recognized for his article, Corporate Hostility to Arbitration (50 Seton Hall L. Rev. 707 (2020)), in which he exposes inconsistencies in the behavior of corporations with respect to mandatory arbitration. He shows that they can, and do, use their drafting power to exclude particular claims from arbitration in order to serve their self-interest, while the Federal Arbitration Act prohibits states from regulating arbitration for those same reasons.
The Award recipients will receive a paid trip for themselves and a guest to be honored at the next NCJI Fellows reception, which will take place (circumstances permitting) in Palm Springs, California this February.
High Distinction Honorees
The Institute also recognized two publications for high distinction among the 35 nominations received: Rights and Retrenchment: The Counterrevolution against Federal Litigation (Cambridge University Press 2017), in which Professors Stephen Burbank, of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Sean Farhang, of the University of California, Berkeley, examine responses to the “rights revolution” that unfolded in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, and trace the increasing hostility to the enforcement of rights through lawsuits; and The Trouble with Trial Times Limits, 106 Geo. L. J. 933 (2018), in which Professor Nora Freeman Engstrom, of Stanford Law School, examines an issue that is quietly and negatively affecting trials at a time when few cases go to trial. She looks at specific trials and data that demonstrate the random implementation of time limits of trials, and how they add additional limitations on plaintiffs.2020 Winner — Clopton and Steinman
2020 Civil Justice Scholarship Award to Zachary Clopton and Adam SteinmanProfessor Clopton, of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, is honored for his article Procedural Retrenchment and the States, 106 Calif. L. Rev 411 (2018), in which he evaluated possible state-court and state-enforcement responses to the Roberts Court’s recent procedural decisions, and suggested further interventions by state courts and public enforcers that could offset the recent regression in access to justice.
Professor Steinman, of The University of Alabama School of Law, is honored for his article Access to Justice, Rationality, and Personal Jurisdiction, 71 Vand. L. Rev. 1401 (2018), in which he analyzed the United States Supreme Court’s recent decisions on personal jurisdiction in civil litigation, examined the situations where personal jurisdiction doctrine is most likely to threaten access to justice and the enforcement of substantive law, and proposed ways to work within the Court’s case law to preserve meaningful access and enforcement.High Distinction for an Article
The Institute also recognized an article for high distinction among the nominations received: The Shifting Sands of Employment Discrimination: From Unjustified Impact to Disparate Treatment in Pregnancy and Pay, 105 Geo. L. J. 559 (2017), by Professor Deborah Brake, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. In an interesting and well-written article addressing one of the most frustrating aspects of employment discrimination law, pay discrimination, Brake argues for using recent developments in the law of pregnancy discrimination to shift the understanding of discriminatory intent in the jurisprudence of equal pay.”2019 Winner — Alexandra Lahav
2019 Civil Justice Scholarship Award to Alexandra Lahav, In Praise of LitigationHigh Distinction for Two Publications
The committee also recognized two works for high distinction among the nominations received: one for a book and one for an article. In the book category, the committee honored Professor Suja Thomas of the University of Illinois College of Law for her book The Missing American Jury: Restoring the Fundamental Constitutional Role of the Criminal, Civil and Grand Juries (Cambridge University Press, 2016).2021 Winners — Sperino, Thomas, and Wojcik
2021 Civil Justice Scholarship Award to Sandra Sperino, Suja Thomas, and Mark WojcikHigh Distinction Honorees
The Institute also recognized two publications for high distinction among the 35 nominations received: Rights and Retrenchment: The Counterrevolution against Federal Litigation (Cambridge University Press 2017), in which Professors Stephen Burbank, of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Sean Farhang, of the University of California, Berkeley, examine responses to the “rights revolution” that unfolded in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, and trace the increasing hostility to the enforcement of rights through lawsuits; and The Trouble with Trial Times Limits, 106 Geo. L. J. 933 (2018), in which Professor Nora Freeman Engstrom, of Stanford Law School, examines an issue that is quietly and negatively affecting trials at a time when few cases go to trial. She looks at specific trials and data that demonstrate the random implementation of time limits of trials, and how they add additional limitations on plaintiffs.2020 Winner — Clopton and Steinman
2020 Civil Justice Scholarship Award to Zachary Clopton and Adam SteinmanProfessor Clopton, of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, is honored for his article Procedural Retrenchment and the States, 106 Calif. L. Rev 411 (2018), in which he evaluated possible state-court and state-enforcement responses to the Roberts Court’s recent procedural decisions, and suggested further interventions by state courts and public enforcers that could offset the recent regression in access to justice.
Professor Steinman, of The University of Alabama School of Law, is honored for his article Access to Justice, Rationality, and Personal Jurisdiction, 71 Vand. L. Rev. 1401 (2018), in which he analyzed the United States Supreme Court’s recent decisions on personal jurisdiction in civil litigation, examined the situations where personal jurisdiction doctrine is most likely to threaten access to justice and the enforcement of substantive law, and proposed ways to work within the Court’s case law to preserve meaningful access and enforcement.