Conserving the Canvas: reducing the environmental footprint of legal briefs by re-imagining court rules and document design strategies

Ruth Anne Robbins, Rutgers School of Law, Camden

Abstract

This article argues that the current system of court rules needlessly wastes natural resources because too much paper is wasted. It includes discussion and calculations about how a change in court rules and attorney practices could help reduce the environmental impact of briefs submitted in appellate courts. This article follows up a previous article, Painting With Print: Incorporating Concepts of Typographic and Layout Design into the Text of Legal Writing Documents, originally published at 2 J. ALWD 108 (2004) and available at www.ca7.uscourts.gov. The tone of this article deliberately matches its predecessor.