Law Commons^™

Taking The English Right To Counsel Seriously In American Civil Gideon Litigation, Scott F. Llewellyn, Brian Hawkins

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Courts have rejected a right to counsel for indigent civil litigants under the U.S. Constitution. But in some American states, that right arguably already exists as a matter of common law, albeit derived from centuries-old English common and statutory law. This Article analyzes the viability of arguments for incorporating the old English right to counsel in the twenty-seven American states that continue to recognize old English common and statutory law as a source of binding authority. Such "originalist" arguments may be appealing to judges who are more willing to revive a historically based right than establish a new right based …

Conscience And The Law: The English Criminal Jury, Robert C. Palmer

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Verdict According to Conscience by Thomas Andrew Green

Equity, Due Process And The Seventh Amendment: A Commentary On The Zenith Case, Patrick Devlin

Michigan Law Review

The seventh amendment to the United States Constitution requires that "[i]n Suits at common law . . . the right of trial by jury shall be preserved." What exactly is a suit at common law? When the amendment was enacted in 1791, there was no law that was common to all the states. In 1812 Supreme Court Justice Story, in a Circuit Court ruling, held that the common law alluded to was the common law of England, "the grand reservoir of all of our jurisprudence." This means that when today an American judge has to decide whether in any set …

The Medieval English County Court, Stephen D. White

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The County Courts of Medieval England, 1150-1350 by Robert C. Palmer

Law And Politics: The House Of Lords As A Judicial Body, 1800-1976, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Law and Politics: The House of Lords as a Judicial Body, 1800-1976 by Robert Stevens

Thoughts About Judging, Henry J. Friendly

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Judge by Patrick Devlin

Judgment Non Obstantibus Datis, Reid Hastie

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Jury Trials by John Baldwin and Michael McConville

The Cardinal's Court: The Impact Of Thomas Wolsey In Star Chamber, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Cardinal's Court: The Impact of Thomas Wolsey in Star Chamber by John A. Guy

An American Lawyer In The Queen's Courts: Impressions Of English Civil Procedure, Benjamin Kaplan

Michigan Law Review

While the words "English Civil Procedure" in the title of this lecture might suggest that there is a single English system, there are in fact a number of them. In the High Court itself, the court of general jurisdiction, a suit in Chancery Division proceeds differently from an action in Queen's Bench Division: the English have made less of a fetish of the "one form of action" than we have. Procedure in the County Courts, the courts for small-debt collection and miscellaneous claims, contrasts with those of the High Court. But Queen's Bench procedure for the staple cases of some …

Statute Of Frauds--The Doctrine Of Equitable Estoppel And The Statute Of Frauds, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In 1677 the English Parliament enacted the first Statute of Frauds to prevent "many fraudulent practices, which are commonly endeavored to be upheld by perjury and subornation of perjury." The trial system then existing in England was forced to depend upon unreliable juries, and relied upon few rules of evidence besides the rule treating parties to an action as incompetent witnesses. Thus, in passing the Statute, Parliament sought to minimize the abuses possible under the trial system by providing that virtually no important contract would be enforceable unless reduced to writing.

Dawson: A History Of Lay Judges, Spencer L. Kimball

Michigan Law Review

A Review of A History of Lay Judges . By John P. Dawson

Keeney: Judgment By Peers, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of JUDGMENT BY PEERS. By Barnaby C. Keeney.

Place Of Trial Of Civil Cases, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

Places involved in a study of place of trial may be classified in various ways. The most general classification is: (1) Places within one sovereignty, (2) Places in different sovereignties. Where there is choice of place within one sovereignty, the only rational basis for making the choice is convenience-convenience of the parties, jurors, witnesses, and of the court itself. The same is true when the choice is between courts of different sovereignties, but without cooperation between the sovereignties rational choice may not be possible. The purpose of this discussion is to compare choice of place in England before 1800 with …

Historic Origins Of Admiralty Jurisdiction In England, Lionel H. Laing

Michigan Law Review

The process of the common law courts when resorted to by foreigners appears to have failed entirely to give redress. Arbitration and other treaties were tried without satisfaction. Finally, in 1337, Edward III found himself obliged to pay out of his own pocket for spoils committed upon Flemish, Genoese and Venetian merchants by his own subjects. This was no international gesture, for it was dictated by necessity, since the English monarch, engaged in a struggle with France, wished to retain the aid of his allies. It thus became urgent to suppress piracy, which was the plague of the Channel.

Conflict Of Laws-Refugee Government Property Conservation Decrees In The Courts Of The United States, Robert D. Ulrich

Michigan Law Review

In the Feuchtwanger case, a French government decree of April 24, 1940, as amended May 10, 1940, defined as prohibited exportation of capital "the acts of allowing to remain outside of French territory, or keeping in foreign exchange or foreign currencies, or of not collecting within the territories fixed by decree or instruction of the Minister of Finance, all or part of the proceeds of the exportation of merchandise, or of the remuneration for services, as well as all or part of all proceeds or income abroad."

In May 1939, plaintiff, then a resident of France, purchased a number of …

Requisitioned And The Government-Owned Ship, J. Whitla Stinson

Michigan Law Review

Jurisdiction over requisitioned and government-owned merchantmen and their liabilities under maritime laws are questions which present no real novelty. They were regarded by the ancient sea-law and were as familiar to it as they have recently become,-on account of the exigencies of the late war, to the admiralty systems of to-day. The maritime law of Rome supplies modem cases with the most cogent parallels and is reflected today in the jurisprudence of France and other continental and Latin countries. The jurisdictional question which figures most prominently in these cases relates to the authority to arrest or libel the property of …

Damage Liability Of Charitable Institutions, Carl Zollman

Michigan Law Review

The question of the liability of charitable institutions to actions for damages presents great difficulties. This is not due how- -ever to a lack of cases. The question has peculiarly "engaged the attention of the bench and bar of the country. The problem has been scrutinized from every conceivable viewpoint. The arguments for and against have well nigh been exhausted, and little, if anything, new remains to be advanced".' In their opinions the courts have frequently gone back to certain English cases disregarding the points decided but stressing certain dicta which have been uttered by the judges which decided them. …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Automobiles - Constitutionality of Statute Making Owner Liable for Injury Caused by Another's Negligent Driving The automobile of D, driven negligently by his fifteen-year-old son. injured P. In an action for damages, D offered evidence that his son took and was driving the automobile against his express orders. Held, such evidence is not admissible in view of PUBLIc AcTs or 1915, No. 302, Sec. 29, providing that if the motor vehicle is being driven at the time of the injury by an immediate member of the owner's family it shall be conclusively presumed that it was with the owner's consent …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Animals - Knowledge of Vicious Propensity - Owner not Liable for Dog Upsetting Ford - The defendant's dog had been in the habit of following and barking at automobiles, and this fact was known to the defendant. The plaintiff was riding with her husband in a Ford car, when suddenly the defendant's dog jumped in front of them. By running over the dog, the car was thrown against an embankment and the plaintiff was injured. Held, that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover, there being no evidence of a vicious propensity in the dog. Melicker v. Sedlacek (Iowa, i92o), …

Note And Comment, Joseph H. Drake, Grover C. Grismore, Victor H. Lane, Edgar N. Durfee, Robert G. Day

Michigan Law Review

Epithetical Jurisprudence and the Annexation of Fixtures - If we begin with all the facts of a controversy and proceed inductively to determine the rights of the parties litigant, we thus arrive at a jurisprudence of rights, whereas, if we reason deductively from a rule, a definition, or a maxim of law to its application in the facts of our case, we can at best attain only a jurisprudence of rules, which has been so aptly characterized as an epithetical jurisprudence. The subject of fixtures is one in which we have great difficulty in applying the inductive method because the …

Note And Comment, Ralph W. Aigler, Charles L. Kaufman, Edwin D. Dickinson, Lester S. Hecht, Leon L. Greenbaum

Michigan Law Review

Judicial Reform in Michigan - The legislature which has been in regular session this year has enacted a measure enlarging the scope of judicial action in a way likely to add very greatly to the iusefulness of the courts. This law authorizes courts of record to make binding declarations of the rights of parties prior to the commission of a wrongful act

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Arrest - Right of Officer to Kill when Serving Warrant for Misdimeanor- Defendant-had a warrant for the arrest of one White, charging him with being drunk and disorderly. When the defendant served the warrant, White advanced upon him with an open knife. Although the defendant had a chance to escape through an open door, he shot and wounded White. In the prosecution of defendant for shooting and wounding White, it was held that the defendant was justified in shooting him. State v. Dunning (N. C., igig), 98 S. E. 530

Note And Comment, Ralph W. Aigler, John B. Waite, Evans Holbrook, John R. Rood

Michigan Law Review

Injuries Arising "Out of" an Employment - An employee's duties take him into the streets where he is injured by being run into by an automobile or other vehicle; has he ground for recovery of compensation under the usual WOltM4a,'eS COMPENSATION AcT providing for an award for injuries "arising out of and in the course of his employment"? Since he was in the street in pursuance of his duties and not in going to or from work, it is clear that the injury was one arising in the "course of" the employment. But did it arise "out of' the employment?

English Law Courts At The Close Of The Revolution Of 1688, Arthur L. Cross

Michigan Law Review

In view of the part which the judges played for a4d against the first two STUARTS, and in view of the grievances of the subject under the law as administered in the ordinary courts 2 -to say nothing of the Star Chamber and the High Commission-it was to be expected that, in the great political and religious upheaval resulting from the Puritan Revolution and the ensuing Civil War, the legal edifice could not remain unshaken. As is well known, one of the early acts of the Long Parliament, in the summer of 1641, was to ab6lish the Star Chambei, the …

The Attaint, John M. Zane

Michigan Law Review

The assize of novel disseisinoriginally lay against the disseisor in possession in favor of the disseisee, and was soon extended to the heir of -the disseisee, but not against the heir or grantee of the disseisor. But the disseisor might be dead or might have conveyed the land, and in such a case the disseisee would be driven to the writ of right with iis delays and chance of battle. But the cases where the defendant had come into possession under a lawful title which was limited in time and had ceased to exist, i.. e., cases where there was …

The Attaint, John M. Zane

Michigan Law Review

The practice of attainting a jury was the method by which for centuries the English law corrected an erroneous finding of fact by the body of men who, in course of time, came to be called a jury. Today this necessary corrective of judicial administration is very inadequately performed by the judge or judges presiding over the trial. The proceeding is now called a motion for a new trial. The new trial is inadequate for the reason that it does not, as did the attaint, substitute a correct verdict for the one given. It merely reverses or sets aside the …