Statement of Editorial Policy

Litigation is a journal for lawyers who go to court and the judges who hear their cases. Whatever their fields—whether antitrust or accidents, business torts or maritime torts, libel or labor relations—and whatever the forum, litigators have common problems and interests. They also have skills and stories worth sharing. In Litigation, published quarterly by the Section of Litigation of the American Bar Association, those problems and interests will be examined, those skills highlighted, those stories told.

The litigator’s arena is the adversary system. Often when litigators step into that arena, they are swept up in controversy. They are called upon to align themselves with and defend unpopular causes. They are frequently required to support positions that they themselves might not personally espouse. Like the litigator, Litigation will not shun controversial or unpopular viewpoints. Indeed, Litigation expects and welcomes controversy. Just as the goal of the adversary system is justice, the goal of Litigation is to provoke serious thought about how justice may be reached through advocacy. The editors believe that confronting issues from all sides rather than avoiding them is the surest route to that goal.

A serious journal does not have to be dull, and scholarship need not be presented with a long face. Litigation seeks to be practical and concrete, not abstract and theoretical; lively and readable, not somber and sesquipedalian. The editors want Litigation to come to a halt on its journey across the desks of busy lawyers and not to flow past like a leaf on a stream, unnoticed and untouched.

The Section of Litigation and the American Bar Association do not necessarily share or endorse any particular views expressed in articles published in Litigation. The views are those, however, of thoughtful members of the litigation bar and the judiciary—people concerned about the state of American trial and appellate advocacy and willing to share those concerns with their colleagues.