Legal Software: Dodson and Starger: Mapping Supreme Court Doctrine: Civil Pleading: Article and Video

Professor Scott Dodson of the University of California Hastings and Profesor Colin Starger of the University of Baltimore have published Mapping Supreme Court Doctrine: Civil Pleading , Federal Courts Law Review , 7, 275-284 (2014).

The article, and the video on which it is based, have been posted to SSRN .

Here is the abstract:

This essay, adapted from the video presentation available on Vimeo as #89845875, graphically depicts the genealogy and evolution of federal civil pleading standards in U.S. Supreme Court opinions over time. We show that the standard narrative — of a decline in pleading liberality from Conley to Twombly to Iqbal — is complicated by both progenitors and progeny. We therefore offer a fuller picture of the doctrine of Rule 8 pleading that ought to be of use to judges and practitioners in federal court. We also hope, through the video presentation, to introduce a new visual format for academic scholarship that capitalizes on the virtues of narration, graphics, mapping, online accessibility, and electronic dissemination.

This is an interesting example of the use of SSRN‘s video display capability.

Click here for previous posts about Colin Starger’s research using the SCOTUS Mapper Software.

HT @ColinStarger