I was preparing a post on language tools, when I thought of F. Lee Bailey. A quote from his book "To Be a Trial Lawyer" will be a great opener for the subject. I searched for the links and found out that he was actually disbarred for several years and just recently (June 2013) got his clearance to practice law again.
Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts
Friday, July 19, 2013
Friday, May 31, 2013
The Time Has Come to Abolish the Slave Law
Slavery was abolished with the passage of 13th Amendment in 1865, and now, with the State of Mississippi completing formalities of filing their ratification this year, it seems fully and universally approved, nationwide. It should be only logical that the "slave law," a body of pre-Amendment court decisions regarding slavery aspects, would become outlawed just as its subject did, instantaneously with it. I was surprised to find out that it didn't. Majority of the slave cases are still marked as "good law." Many of them are cited in decisions made decades after the Amendment. Some are even recognized authority in up-to-date treatises. I think this is an important issue, worthy of our attention, something we should, and now can, fix.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Are the decisions of the Confederate courts good law?
When I research on a given rule, I try to look for a chain of decisions as far as it may go. Getting with a well-settled rule past the 20th century and into 18xx-ies' decisions is something happening often and without much of an effort.
Since I practice in California, rule's ancestry beyond 1860s quickly becomes unpredictable: we may have a US Supreme Court's case (lucky!), or it be referred to another state's earlier decision (easy), or to jump a hundred years and quote an earlier UK case (not so easy), or even rely on a Spanish/Mexican rule or tradition (the research stops there for me, almost always). This unpredictable change in time or space makes the search exciting, yet it also made me think, what if the chain gets into a decision held by a Confederate court? Are those decisions "bad law"?
Since I practice in California, rule's ancestry beyond 1860s quickly becomes unpredictable: we may have a US Supreme Court's case (lucky!), or it be referred to another state's earlier decision (easy), or to jump a hundred years and quote an earlier UK case (not so easy), or even rely on a Spanish/Mexican rule or tradition (the research stops there for me, almost always). This unpredictable change in time or space makes the search exciting, yet it also made me think, what if the chain gets into a decision held by a Confederate court? Are those decisions "bad law"?
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Upholding monetary obligations through the times of change - from 1796 to 2001
I had an assignment to find citations to the cases, which deal with the problem of conflicting loan papers: if there is a conflict between a note and a deed of trust, whose terms prevail.
As it usually goes, I went too far with it too soon, quickly finding myself in the 19th century territory. There, I came across a case, Gavinzel v. Crump, 89 U.S. 308 (U.S. 1875). While the case had little to do with my research subject, it caught my eye for its rich story, a real-life adventure (even within the original meaning of the word), where the backdrop was the Civil War, and where two residents of a rebellion state (Virginia) made a deal, one borrowing from another a certain sum in Confederacy notes. The lender then "got out of Richmond and went to Europe; his escape through the rebel lines having been, according to his own account, almost impossible; attended with greater difficulties than anything which he had ever in his life done." (Id. at 5)
As it usually goes, I went too far with it too soon, quickly finding myself in the 19th century territory. There, I came across a case, Gavinzel v. Crump, 89 U.S. 308 (U.S. 1875). While the case had little to do with my research subject, it caught my eye for its rich story, a real-life adventure (even within the original meaning of the word), where the backdrop was the Civil War, and where two residents of a rebellion state (Virginia) made a deal, one borrowing from another a certain sum in Confederacy notes. The lender then "got out of Richmond and went to Europe; his escape through the rebel lines having been, according to his own account, almost impossible; attended with greater difficulties than anything which he had ever in his life done." (Id. at 5)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)