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Prof. Dodson Posts Article on Bowles v. Russell

By A. Benjamin Spencer

Professor Scott Dodson has just posted an article entitled The Failure of Bowles v. Russell on SSRN. Here is the Abstract:

This article, written for the Supreme Court Review issue of Tulsa Law Review, critiques Bowles v. Russell - perhaps last term's most underrated case - which characterized the time to file a civil notice of appeal as jurisdictional and therefore not subject to equitable excuses for noncompliance. In so holding, the Court overstated the supporting precedent, inflated the jurisdictional importance of statutes, and undermined an important recent movement to clarify when a rule is jurisdictional and when it is not. This did not have to be. The Court missed a golden opportunity to chart a middle course holding the rule mandatory but nonjurisdictional, which would have been more consistent with precedent while resolving the case on its narrowest grounds. This Article explains where Bowles went wrong, what it should have done, and how it may affect future questions on the jurisdictionality of rules and limits.

The full text version of this article may be downloaded by visiting http://ssrn.com/abstract=1095376.

Full post as published by Federal Civil Practice Bulletin on March 17, 2008 (boomark / email).