How Planned Is “Planned Litigation”?

Civil rights litigation undertaken by lawyers associated with interest groups, particularly the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), is of ten described as planned" litigation. This article examines litigation by these organizations from the late 1960s through the early 1980s to explore the extent to which "planned litigation" is planned. The author interviewed both staff attorneys for organizations participating in race relations litigation and "cooperating attorneys" associated with such organizations.
Elements of planned litigation discussed are litigating organizations' choices—of areas of law on which to focus, of cases, of federal or state courts, and of amicus curiae participation—and the dynamics of litigation—including relations between staff and cooperating attorneys, litigators' control of cases, and the effect of Supreme Court decisions on litigation strategy.
The interviews reveal that much interest-group civil rights litigation is not selected deductively on the basis of previously developed criteria but instead develops inductively from cases that come to the organizations and is affected by pressure and circumstance. Counter to the view, stemming from Brown v. Board of Education, that civil rights litigation is undertaken as planned "campaigns" based on "blueprints," it appears that much about "planned" litigation is problematic, with many constraints imposed by the actions of others and by resource problems, with the result that many deviations from litigation strategy occur. Thus much "planned" litigation b responsive and reflexive and beyond litigators' control.     

Book reviews

Language Planning and National Development: The Uzbek Case William Fierman Berlin, New York: de Gruyter, 1991, Contributions to the Sociology of Language No 60, XIII, 375 pp, $110.00

Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and Autonomy in Twentieth‐Century Iran Touraj Atabaki London, England: British Academic Press, 1993, pp 238

Central Asia: New Arc of Crisis Shirin Akiner London, Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, 1993, 79 pp,appendices, £4.95

Without right and left Nursultan Nazarbaev Class Publishing, London, 1992, 171 pp, photos, pb NP

The Islamization of Central Asia. A Case Study of Uzbekistan Diloram Ibrahim Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 1993, 32 pp, £1.50

Survival Among the Kurds. A History of the Yezidis John S. Guest London: Kegan Paul International, 1993, 324 pp, Illus., bibliography, index, £45

Samarkand compiled by Andrei Nedvetsky, 159 pp, illustrated, Bukhara compiled by Andrei Nedvetsky, 159 pp, illustrated, Khiva compiled by Andrei Nedvetsky, 127 pp, illustrated, Reading, England: Garnet Publishing, 1993, £16.95 each

My Golden Road from Samarkand Jascha Golowanjuk London: Quartet Books, £14.95, 244 pp

Turkey's New Geopolitics From the Balkans to Western China Graham E. Fuller, Ian O. Lesser, Paul D. Henze & J. F. Brown Boulder, Oxford, UK: Westview Press, A RAND Book, 1993, 197 pp, £10.50

Turkish Foreign Policy. New Prospects Clement H. Dodd (editor) Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire: The Eothen Press, 1992, 117 pp, £12.50 pb

Derwische. Gelebter Sufismus Jurgen Frembgen Koln, Germany: DuMont Buchverlag, 1993, 283 pp, illustrations

Die Gärten des Islam Hermann Forkl, Johannes Kalter, Thomas Leisten & Margaret Pavaloi (editors) Stuttgart/London: Hansjorg Mayer, 1993, 388 pp, illustrations, £30

Birth of a Tragedy. Kashmir 1947 Alastair Lamb Hertingfordbury: Roxford Books, 1994, 177 pp, £9 pb

The Afghan Syndrome. The Soviet Union's Vietnam Major‐General Oleg Sarin & Colonel Lev Dvoretsky London: Greenhill Books, Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1993, £22.50, 195 pp, appendices, index     

Book reviews

In a Collapsing Empire: Underdevelopment, Ethnic Conflicts and Nationalisms in the Soviet Union. Marco Buttino (editor). Milano: Fondazione Giangiacomo Fentrinelli, 1993, 375 pp, Lire80,000.

The Turkic Peoples of the World. Margaret Bainbridge (editor). London: Kegan Paul International, 1993, 403 pp, £65.

Where Two Worlds Met. The Russian State and the Kalmyk Nomads, 1600–1771. Michael Khodarkovsky. Cornell University Press, 1992, 278 pp, illus, index.

Please Don't Call it Soviet Georgia. Mary Russell. London: Serpent's Tail, 1991, viii, 268 pp, £9.99.

Georgia: a Rebel in the Caucasus. Peter Nasmyth. London, Cassell, 1992, 222 pp, £16.99.

Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History. Ronald Grigor Suny. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993, xiii, 289 pp, $17.95.

Muslim‐Christian Encounters. William Montgomery Watt. Routledge, 1991, 164 pp, index.

The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia. Peter Hopkirk. London: John Murray, 1990, xiv, 562 pp, illus, £19.95.

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia. Peter Hopkirk. New York: Kodansha, 1992, xxiv, 564 pp, illus, $30.00.

Francis Younghusband and the Great Game. Anthony Verrier. London: Jonathan Cape, 1991, xviii, 238 pp, illus, £18.00.     

What Did the Janitor Do? Suggestive Interviewing and the Accuracy of Children's Accounts

Examined the influence of suggestive interviews on 5- to 6-year-old children's reports and recollections of an adult's behavior. Children (29 girls, 27 boys) witnessed a confederate, acting as a janitor, either clean or play with toys. An hour later they were interviewed in succession by the janitor's boss, by an experimenter, and by their own parent. Parents interviewed their child again 1 week later. The boss and experimenter interviewed the child in one of three ways: neutral (nonleading), incriminating (suggesting the janitor was bad and playing on the job), or exculpating (suggesting the janitor was good and doing his job of cleaning). When these interviews were neutral, children consistently gave accurate accounts of the janitor's behavior. When these interviews were suggestive, children's accounts shifted strongly in the direction of suggestion as the interviews progressed. By the end of the suggestive interviews, children's accounts uniformly corresponded to the interviewers' suggestions, even when the suggestions were inconsistent with what actually happened. These effects of suggestion persisted during the two nonleading parent interviews.     

Reviews

Beyond Apartheid: Human Resources for a New South Africa. James Currey Ltd., Islington, London, David Philip Publisher (Pty) Ltd., Claremont (South Africa), and Heinemann Educational Books Inc., Portsmouth (USA), 1991. x plus 132pp. including tables, notes and appendices. £7,95. Paperback.

Occasional Papers on the Irish in South Africa by Donald H. Akenson. Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 1991.96pp.

The Organisation of African Unity: An Analysis of its Role by Gino J. Naldi. Mansell: London and New York, 1989. ix plus 228pp. including appendices. £40,00.

Place, Migration and Development in the Third World. An Alternative View by Lawrence A. Brown. Routledge, London and New York, 1991. xx plus 252pp. including figures, tables, appendices, notes, references and index. Hardback.

Urban and Regional Change in Southern Africa edited by David Drakakis‐Smith. Routledge (London), 1992. xviii plus 227 pp. including figures, tables, notes, bibliography and index.

The Making of the Colonial Order: White Supremacy and Black Resistance in the Eastern Cape, 1770–1865 by Clifton C. Crais. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, 1992. 284pp. R60,00. Paperback.

Bounds of Possibility by B. Pityana, M. Ramphele, M. Mpumlwana and L Wilson. David Philip, Cape Town, 1991. R35,50. Paperback.

All, Here, and Now: Black Politics in the 1980s by Tom Lodge, Bill Nasson, Steven Mufson, Khehla Shubane and Nokwanda Sithole. David Philip, Cape Town, 1991. x plus 414 pp. including figures, appendices, bibliography and index. R44,95. Paperback.

Spirit of Africa: The Healing Ministry of Archbishop Milingo of Zambia by Gerrie ter Haar. Hurst & Company, London, 1992. x plus 286 pp. including map illustrations, notes, bibliography and index. £9,95. Paperback.

Striking Back: A History of COSATU by Jeremy Baskin. Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1991. xv plus 488pp. R32.95.

Economic Development That Lasts: Labour‐intensive Irrigation Projects in Nepal and the United Republic of Tanzania by Bertin Martens. International Labour Office, Geneva, 1989. xvii plus 191pp. including maps, figures, tables, appendices and bibliography. Swiss francs 27,50. Paperback.

South African Review 6: From “Red Friday” to CODESA edited by Glenn Moss and Ingrid Obery. Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1992. xxi plus 508pp. including figures, tables and notes. Paperback.

Black Youth in Crisis: Facing the Future edited for CASE by David Everatt and Elinor Sisulu. Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1992. xii plus 89pp. including figures, tables and notes.     

Reinventing the Market? Competition and Regulatory Change in Broadcasting

The reforms instituted by the Broadcasting Act 1990 led to a period of turbulence and upheaval within broadcasting with results that were at best unintended and, at worst, seriously undermined the ideal of public service broadcasting. A Hayekian economic perspective would suggest that the reforms failed because they did not go far enough in the direction of full ÔmarketizationÕ. The paper develops an alternative perspective, based on an adaptation of systems theory within the context of law and economics. This approach offers a broader methodological foundation for the understanding of Ôeconomic lawÕ and a different normative perspective on the broadcasting reforms. It is suggested that the difficulty with these reforms was not their failure to go further in the direction of the market, but rather their lack of clarity in articulating a clear alternative to the market as the basis for the organization of television production.     

Low self-control, rational choice, and student test cheating

Using scenario-based survey data from a sample of 330 university students, this study examined the effects of low self-control, rational choice variables, and control measures on intentions to cheat on a college exam. A moderate bivariate association was observed between low self-control and cheating intentions. However, a series of multivariate regression equations showed that low selfcontrol did not have a significant effect on intentions to cheat once the influence of other variables, especially anticipated shame, were controlled. Furthermore, findings supported the rational choice framework in explaining student decisions to cheat. Implications regarding these findings are discussed.