REHEARING IN AMERICAN APPELLATE COURTS

Abstract

This article concerns the method of reviewing the Supreme Court of Canada’s decisions that is known as rehearing. Due to a virtual absence of judicial commentary on the procedure and its limited known use in Canada, this article undertakes a summary survey of the practice in the United States where it is almost routine. Upon investigation, however, the authors discovered scarcely more commentary among American literature, and therefore composed a questionnaire that they sent to courts of final instance in all forty-eight states, the eleven appellate courts and the Supreme Court of the United States. Before examining the results, the authors explain the general procedure of the rehearing, its origins and justifications. They then delineate the grounds for granting a rehearing and the use of additional screening devices, the basic procedures on rehearing, the characteristics of the special en banc rehearing and, finally, they suggest resolution for certain problems.