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Date: November 8, 2007
Time: 12:00 -1:00 p.m.
Place: College of Law - Room 114
Cincinnati, OH—University of Cincinnati College of Law Professor Suja Thomas will present “The Civil Jury: The Disregarded Constitutional Actor,” a discussion on the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial and the role of the jury in relationship to other constitutional actors on Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 12:00 p.m. The lecture, which will be held in Room 114 at the law school, will be followed by a question and answer session. Application has been made for 1 hour of CLE credit for Ohio.
“The civil jury enjoys constitutional protection,” said Professor Thomas. “The constitution establishes the civil jury as a separate constitutional actor, like the judiciary, the executive, the legislature and the states under the separation of powers and federalism. The Seventh Amendment sets forth in what circumstances a right to a jury trial occurs and in what circumstances the right can be circumscribed.”
She continued, “Despite this protection, through devices such as summary judgment, remittitur and arbitration enforcements, another constitutional actor, the judiciary, exercises significant unchecked power over the power of the civil jury with the result that few civil jury trials occur any longer. If we are to maintain a role for the civil jury in our constitutional structure, the judiciary itself should play a special role of modesty in its exercise of power over the jury which itself cannot protect its power.”
Professor Thomas, Professor of Law, earned her BA in mathematics from Northwestern University and her JD from New York University School of Law. Following a federal clerkship in Chicago and practice in New York City, she began teaching law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. She is the recipient of the Harold C. Schott Scholarship Award, which recognizes outstanding research and scholarly achievement by a member of the law school faculty, and the Jerome Goldman Prize for Teaching Excellence. Professor Thomas also received the Schott Law Review Award for her article “Why Summary Judgment Is Unconstitutional,” published by the Virginia Law Review, featured in the New York Times, and cited by Judge Jack Weinstein for the proposition that “[t]he increasing use of bench trials, Daubert hearings, summary judgments, and directed verdicts-as authorized by rules of practice and appellate courts-to limit jury fact finding and set aside verdicts poses a threat to the continued viability of the Seventh Amendment jury trial.”
Her work on the civil jury is published in the Virginia Law Review, the Washington University Law Quarterly, the Colorado Law Review and the Ohio State Law Journal. Her most recent article “Why the Motion to Dismiss Is Now Unconstitutional” will be published next year in the Minnesota Law Review, and her further work on the Seventh Amendment will be discussed and published in a symposium by the Iowa Law Review.
Contact Information:
Sherry English
513.556.0090
sherry.english@uc.edu