I’ve been teaching first-year law students about civil procedure for more than 40 years. But for about half of that time I didn’t fully understand the significance of civil litigation in a broader social and economic context.

Some of my insights about the role of civil litigation in American society came through interactions with my foreign students, lawyers from other countries who have come to our school to study U.S. law. They arrive at law school knowing a good deal more about U.S. law than I or my American students know about the legal systems from which they come.