Professors choosing a civil procedure book have always faced difficult dilemmas. The "breadth vs. depth" trade-off is particularly acute in this field, and the matter is complicated by the fact that civil procedure might be allocated as few as 3 or as many as 6 credits. This book aims to ease that dilemma by structuring the material so that it can be taught quickly but at a high levels; the cases and notes are short but intellectually challenging. At less than 700 pages, most of the book can be covered in as few as 4 credit hours, but the materials are rich enough to expand discussion to 6 credit hours. For each individual topic, it is possible to use this book to cover the basics or to probe the issues in depth, depending on the time allocated. The book also introduces students to the themes that run through civil procedure: efficiency and fairness, the advantages and disadvantages of the adversarial system, real-life litigation strategies, and issues of federalism and separation of powers inherent in the American judicial system. Each chapter begins by exploring these themes through excerpts from scholarship in the field, and is followed by notes and questions. The cases have been chosen to capture the students' interest as well as to teach the topics.