Implementation of Consent Decrees in Structural Reform Litigation

Lloyd C. Anderson, University of Akron School of Law

Abstract

Persons seeking structural reform of powerful institutions have increasingly used public law litigation' in their continuing and multi-faceted struggle to realize the ideal of human dignity in the administration of justice. Such complex civil litigation is invariably emotional and can polarize whole communities: the plaintiffs raise grievances essential to their economic and spiritual welfare, while the defendants see such suits as affronts to their carefully-considered, even-handed professional and administrative judgments. In the ensuing all-out legal warfare, the parties may expend extravagant amounts of money and time before the issues are finally decided.