Cite as: 521 U. S. 591 (1997)
Syllabus
that common questions "predominate over any questions affecting only individual members" and that class resolution be "superior to other available methods for the fair and efficient adjudication of the controversy." To alert Rule 23(b)(3) class members to their right to "opt out," Rule 23 requires "the best notice practicable under the circumstances." Rule 23(c)(2). Finally, Rule 23(e) specifies that a class action cannot be settled without the court's approval, and that notice of the proposed compromise must be given to all class members in such manner as the court directs. Pp. 613-619. (b) Because settlement is relevant to the propriety of class certification, the Third Circuit's statement that Rule 23(a) and (b)(3) "must be satisfied without taking into account the settlement" bears modification. But the Third Circuit did not, in fact, ignore the settlement. The court homed in on settlement terms in explaining why it found absentees' interests inadequately represented. The Third Circuit's inspection of the settlement agreement in that regard was altogether proper. Whether trial would present intractable management problems, see Rule 23(b)(3)(D), is not a consideration when settlement-only certification is requested, for the proposal is that there be no trial. But other specifications of the Rule designed to protect absentee class members by blocking unwarranted or overbroad class definitions are of vital importance in the settlement context, for the court in such a case will lack the opportunity to adjust the class as litigation unfolds. See Rule 23(c) and (d). And, of overriding importance, courts must be mindful that they are bound to enforce the Rule as now composed, for Federal Rules may be amended only through the extensive deliberative process Congress prescribed. Rule 23(e)'s settlement prescription was designed to function as an additional requirement, not a superseding direction, to the class-qualifying criteria of Rule 23(a) and (b). Cf. Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin, 417 U. S. 156, 176-177. The dominant concern of Rule 23(a) and (b)—that a proposed class have sufficient unity so that absentees can fairly be bound by class representatives' decisions—persists when settlement, rather than trial, is proposed. Those subdivisions' safeguards provide practical checks in the settlement context. First, their standards serve to inhibit class certifications dependent upon the court's gestalt judgment or overarching impression of the settlement's fairness. Second, if a Rule 23(e) fairness inquiry controlled certification, eclipsing Rule 23(a) and (b), and permitting certification despite the impossibility of litigation, both class counsel and court would be disarmed. Class counsel confined to settlement negotiations could not use the threat of litigation to press for a better offer, and the court would face a bargain proffered for its approval without benefit of adversarial investigation. Federal courts, in any case, lack authority to sub-
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