Sunday

Week Fourteen, Part 2 - Cram Session

On Tuesday night, I join a group of thirty students at a study group sponsored by West Bar Review. Each session features a videotaped lecture, about four hours long, covering a substantive area of law. Whereas the Socratic method delivers information in drips and drabs, the West tape gives it straight.

The topic for tonight is Civil Procedure. Harvard’s Arthur Miller, the instructor, introduces the material: “Jurisdiction is the jewel of the course. It deals with big issues. And it provides a way of testing the intellectual character of the student, because the stuff can be deep.”

That’s an understatement, I think. Since Week Two, I’ve been lost in the CivPro sea. During the mock midterm, I didn’t know enough to write a simple answer.

Professor Miller divides CivPro into seven areas: subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, notice, service of process, venue, removal, waiver.

He summarizes the major cases, such as Professor Joseph Bauer’s favorite, Pennoyer v. Neff. Miller emphasizes the key points which must be included in every answer. Without them, the student will lose points, “even if you just wrote the greatest paragraph since the preamble to the Constitution.”

When Miller explains “venue,” our current topic in CivPro, I’m frantic to get everything down. Since my Immunity Days stunt last week, Professor Bauer hasn’t called on me. I fantasize that I’ve earned “true immunity,” meaning I’m free from Socratic cross-examination for the rest of the semester. But I know in my bones that it’s the opposite – Bauer will drill me sometime soon, maybe tomorrow.

Miller says there are three elements in any venue situation.
  1. Is there venue under the statute?
  2. Can and should I transfer venue “in the interest of justice?”
  3. If I can't transfer venue, should I “forum non it out?”
He defines forum non conveniens as “this ain't a convenient place.”

We laugh along with the taped audience.

Miller’s example is a case involving Union Carbide and the deadly gas leak at its chemical plant in Bhopal. “The federal court said, ‘Get out of here. Go to India.’"

At 9:00 p.m., the video ends. It’s cold and dark outside, but there’s a lightness in my step as I walk to the car. For the first time, I’ve heard Civil Procedure explained in a way that makes good sense.

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