Swift and Erie: The Trials of an Ephemeral Landmark Case

Like jazz improvisation, the meaning of Swift v. Tyson was elusive. ¹ Justice Joseph Story's 1842 opinion concerning an important commercial‐law issue arose from a jury trial. ² When the creditor plaintiff appealed, counsel for the winning debtor raised as a defense Section 34 of the 1789 Judiciary Act. The federal circuit court disagreed about the standing of commercial law under Section 34. Although profound conflicts otherwise divided nationalist and states'‐rights proponents, the Supreme Court endorsed Story's commercial‐law opinion unanimously. ³ New members of the Court and the increasing number of federal lower‐court judges steadily transformed the Swift doctrine; after the Civil War it agitated the federal judiciary, elite lawyers, and Congress. ⁴ Asserting contrary tenets of American constitutionalism, the Supreme Court overturned the ninety‐six‐year‐old precedent in Erie Railroad v. Tompkins (1938). ⁵ The Swift doctrine's resonance with changing times was forgotten. The Court and the legal profession established, transformed, and abandoned the doctrine though an adversarial process and judicial instrumentalism. Although the policy of each decision reflected its time, Story's opinion was more consistent with the federalism of the early Constitution than was Erie. ⁶     

Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson

While all individuals have a story, not all individuals’stories offer great insights about American history. This accountof Junius Wilson's life (1908–2001) provides a devastatingcritique of North Carolina social norms and policies (especiallyattitudes to the deaf and to African Americans), court operations,state institutionalization and treatment of the insane, andaccess to justice. Mr. Wilson was "incarcerated in an insaneasylum merely because he was deaf, black, and poor, and bureaucraticinertia and staff paternalism helped keep him there for [morethan] sixty-five years" (129). Not only was he imprisoned physicallybut also he was isolated culturally since he was denied access     

清末周冕吞欠公款案查办始末

本文依据文献,就清末两次查办周冕吞欠公款案的过程,做了梗概的叙述.文中特别揭示出第二次查办案件时所遇到的阻力和矛盾,最终导致力主查办此案的程德全被迫妥协的情况