Long Live Marc Galanter

Back in April, following Marc Galanter’s passing, John Lande wrote a lovely post honoring Galanter’s life and work. John was the most appropriate of Indisputably’s contributors to write that tribute, given that he was one of Galanter’s grad students back in the day.

I mention this because another tribute to Galanter crossed my desk today. Although written on May 31st, this one comes from Jeffrey Rachlinski in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. While I’d like to share it in toto here (link here — it may be paywalled, so you may need to ask your library for access), it’s probably best simply to share an excerpt.

We at the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, [ ] owe a special debt to Professor Galanter. . . . Ted Eisenberg solicited Marc’s piece, The Vanishing Trial: An Examination of Trials and Related Matters in Federal and State Courts, as the cornerstone of a special issue analyzing the dramatic decline in trials. . . . The piece stands as a model for any empirical legal scholar. It is, to date, one of the most cited pieces we have published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.

* * *

Overall, Galanter’s career was marked by a consistent effort to uncover the gap between legal ideals and actual practice, with “the vanishing trial” standing as one of his most influential contributions to understanding modern legal systems.

Between Lande’s tribute and this one, there’s not much more to say. We lost a titan in the field, and remembering Galanter this morning brought a smile to my face.

Long live Marc Galanter.

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