The hallmark of Judge Posner's class action decisions is rigorous review to ensure that aggregate litigation serves the best interests of class members and does not unduly pressure defendants to settle. Although he championed class actions, especially as a way to provide efficient justice in...

The class action is controversial because the class attorney can litigate or settle the claims of the class members without their consent. Many scholars have turned to corporate law to address the potentially disloyal behavior of the class attorney. These scholars have used analogies to...

Prior research suggests that class membership is higher in opt-out models than in opt-in models. One of the main concerns with an opt-out model is that it causes a tension with the principle of party autonomy (litigant autonomy). This study explores this tension as well as whether an opt out...

Class actions have been a feature of the American litigation landscape for over 75 years. For most of this period, American-style class litigation was either unknown or resisted around the world. Notwithstanding this chilly reception abroad, American class litigation has always been a central...

Class action litigation has generated a series of recent Supreme Court decisions imposing greater federal court supervision over the prosecution of collective injury claims. This group of cases raises the question whether class action waivers should be permitted on policy grounds. I examine the...

Over the past 25 years, class actions have emerged as a central feature of Canadian law. The conceptual heart of these class actions comes from the Ontario Law Reform Commission's 1982 Report on Class Actions, particularly in common law Canada. Drawing on the experiences of the early-adopter...

In this essay, I review Justice Scalia's class action jurisprudence. Although the Justice was not a consistent vote against class actions, two of his opinions -- interpreting the Federal Arbitration Act -- have done more to hinder class action lawsuits than any Supreme Court opinions before or...

This Article addresses an increasingly important question: When, if ever, should foreign citizens be included as members of an American class action? The existing consensus holds that courts should exclude from class membership those foreign citizens whose country does not recognize an American...

This Article analyzes the way federal courts have conducted their superiority inquiries on motions for class certification in transnational class actions. Opt-out class actions under Rule 23(b)(3) conflict with an important premise of legal systems around the world, namely, that one cannot be...