Divisional Arrangement for the Federal Appeals Courts

A Federal Appellate System for the Twenty-First Century

In December 1998, the Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals issued a report and recommendations for Congress and the President. The commission resulted from ongoing controversy over splitting the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The commissioners clearly suggested that the circuit remain intact but proposed three regionally based adjudicative divisio...

Resolving Amicus Curiae Motions in the Third Circuit and Beyond

Amicus curiae briefs are deeply woven into the fabric of modern federal appellate practice. Indeed, amici curiae submit briefs in approximately ninety percent of the cases that the United States Supreme Court entertains, and the Justices deny a minuscule number of amicus requests to participate. Amicus practice is less ubiquitous in the United States Courts of Appeals. Amici seek to file compar...

The Nature and Causes of the Immigration Surge in the Federal Courts of Appeals: A Preliminary Analysis

Competing with the “patent Court”: a Newly Robust Ecosystem

In her elegant and lively address, Chief Judge Wood suggests exposing the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, created in 1982 to hear all appeals from patent cases, to competition from other appellate courts. Under Judge Wood’s proposal, parties would have the choice of seeking review either in the regional circuit in which the district court was located or in the Federal Circuit. Judge W...

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s Impact on Patent Litigation

More than twenty years after the establishment of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), research has yet to explain accurately the new court’s impact on patent litigation, patenting and inventive activity. To address this shortcoming in the literature, we analyze a novel data set that permits us to separately consider the issues of validity and infringement in comparing the tende...