For some time, I’ve been mulling over how closely parties can tailor the rules of civil procedure to their own purposes. That is: are parties actually writing enforceable contract terms which state that if they sue each other, the ordinary procedural rules won’t apply . For example, they might contract to be able to take 5 depositions in a case instead of the default 10. Or they might dispose of the rules of hearsay.  The literature here arguably started with the Scott/Triantis piece, Anticipating Litigation in Contract Design, and has gotten new momentum from Bone, Kapeliuk/Klement, Dodge, and Drahozal/Rutledge. My contribution ended up being slightly more empirical than I’d expected — though I guess this won’t surprise any of our long-time readers.  In Why Is Privatized Procedure [...]

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