Procedural Postcard from America

Abstract

American procedure has long been distinctive. It was part of the common law family of procedure, but different from the other common law countries, and even more different from the civil law countries. Gradually, the other common law countries have changed their procedures to be more similar to that in the civil law countries, which have at the same time been introducing elements that resemble some traditional features of common law procedure. In that sense, harmonization seems to be happening in the rest of the world, except America. That remains true, but ongoing procedural changes in America mean that US procedure is coming to resemble the procedure of the rest of the world a bit more than it did a generation ago. This article reports on the most recent reform package for the US federal courts, which will be under active consideration in America in 2013–2014.