A More Complete Look at Complexity

The ability of courts to successfully resolve complex cases has been a matter of
contentious debate, not only for the last quarter-century, but for most of the
twentieth century. This debate has been part of the legal landscape at least since
Judge Jerome Frank’s polemic book from which this Symposium derives its title,
and probably since Roscoe Pound’s famous address to the American Bar Association.
During the 1980s and 1990s in particular, the battlelines of the pro- and
anti-court debate have been brightly drawn. Some commentators, most reliably
successful plaintiffs’ counsel and politically liberal academics, defend the
judicial track record in complex matters. Simultaneously, the defense bar and the
conservatives of bench, bar, and academy tend to be critical, particularly of the
jury system.