Class Actions at the Cloverleaf

The papers on which I am to comment demonstrate that the conveners of this
conference fell short of the full truth when they called it “Class Actions at the
Crossroads.” Today’s class action situation does resemble a crossroads in one way:
we face far-reaching choices’ without fully understanding what confronts us.2
But on the whole, the situation looks more like a cloverleaf. Different groups of
litigants drive in on a variety of roads, swerve about along confusing curves, and then
zoom out in different directions. Drawing on the excellent papers of Stephen Calkins,
James Cox, Francis McGovern and Jack Greenberg, I will sketch two maps of the
terrain. Then I will present some criticisms of Professor McGovern’s hints that
pragmatism provides a straight path through the hubbub for mass tort settlement class
actions.