HORIZONTAL JURISPRUDENCE AND SEX-DISCRIMINATION

In this Article, Professor Burns contrasts the vertical juris-prudenti al style of Title VII with the horizontal approaches found in other, u nrelated areas of the law. She argues that Title VII's vertical, top-d own development and testing are largely responsible for the law's fail ure to produce more concrete results or to settle the often acrimoniou s arguments on the subject of gender equality in the workplace. She ad vocates supplementing Title VII's one-size-fits-all set of rules with a bottom-up, horizontal approach to rulemaking and rule testing. This will allow those directly affected by the rules to participate in thei r development and encourage different employers and employees to exper iment with different plans tailored to meet their specific needs. Whil e some plans will fail, others will succeed, wholly or partially. Grad ually, firms and employees can learn from another's successes and fail ures.