Description

Federal Courts in the 21st Century: Cases and Materials 4th Edition Howard P. Fink ISBN 9780769865089

The Fourth Edition of Federal Courts in the 21st Century offers a streamlined and more focused treatment of the topics most commonly taught in upper-level courses on Federal Courts or Federal Jurisdiction. To sharpen this focus, coverage of aggregative and complex litigation has been substantially reduced. Material previously devoted to class actions, joinder devices, venue, forum non conveniens, and multidistrict litigation has largely been removed to allow deeper engagement with core jurisdictional doctrines.

A newly added Chapter 11, Doctrinal and Statutory Restrictions on Federal Jurisdiction Related to State-Court Litigation, consolidates discussion of abstention doctrines and the Anti-Injunction Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2283. These topics were previously addressed in the context of complex litigation but now appear in a more doctrinally coherent placement following the chapters on statutory federal jurisdiction. In addition, material on the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA), formerly located in the class actions chapter, has been relocated to a new section at the end of Chapter 8 on Diversity and Alienage Jurisdiction. That section now examines the three existing forms of minimal-diversity jurisdiction: statutory interpleader, the Multiparty, Multiforum Trial Jurisdiction Act of 2002, and CAFA.

The Fourth Edition also reflects significant statutory developments. Chapters affected by the Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011 (JVCA)—most notably Chapter 8 on Diversity and Alienage Jurisdiction and Chapter 10 on Removal—have been thoroughly revised to incorporate the Act’s many clarifications and improvements. Chapter 8 now includes Hertz Corp. v. Friend, in which the Supreme Court resolved a longstanding circuit split concerning the meaning of a corporation’s “principal place of business” for diversity jurisdiction purposes.

The book concludes with a new Chapter 18, Federal Jurisdiction in Time of War and in an Age of Terrorism, which serves as a thematic capstone. Centered on the Supreme Court’s landmark 2008 decision in Boumediene v. Bush, addressing habeas corpus rights of alien enemy detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the chapter integrates key course themes, including separation of powers, jurisdiction-stripping, the role of non–Article III tribunals, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. It also provides historical context on military commissions, examines the governmental responses to the September 11 attacks, and surveys legal developments following Boumediene, offering students a timely and thought-provoking conclusion to the study of federal courts.

Federal Courts in the 21st Century: Cases and Materials 4th Edition Howard P. Fink ISBN 9780769865089, 978-0769865089 & 9780327189831

Authors
Howard P. Fink
Thomas D. Rowe, Jr.
Mark V. Tushnet