Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

The Theory And Practice Of Pre-Trial Procedure, Edson R. Sunderland

Michigan Law Review

Pre-trial civil procedure under the English common-law system consisted only of pleading. Whatever the rules of pleading could accomplish in the way of defining and restricting issues contributed to the efficiency of the trial. What could not be done by the rules of pleading could not be done at all.

The great weakness of pleading as a means for developing and presenting issues of fact for trial lay in its total lack of any means for testing the factual basis for the pleader's allegations and denials. They might rest upon the soundest evidence, or they might rest upon nothing at …

The Doctrine Of Stare Decisis In British Courts Of Last Resort, John A. Fairlie

Michigan Law Review

The House of Lords and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are both British courts of last resort. The House of Lords is the final court for the United Kingdom and reviews cases from the English Court of Appeals and equivalent courts of Scotland and Northern Ireland; the Judicial Committee hears appeals of cases from the colonies and dominions and ecclesiastical cases.

Readers of Professor Gray's lectures on The Nature and Sources of the Law are aware of the distinction he notes between the attitude of the British House of Lords, on the one hand, and the Judicial Committee …

Procedure - Service Of Process - Jurisdiction Conferred By Consent

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a resident of England, and defendant, a resident of New York, entered into a contract for the sale and delivery of zinc. By a clause in the contract the parties agreed that all differences arising thereunder should be arbitrated at London pursuant to the arbitration law of Great Britain. Differences arose, and the plaintiff requested the defendant in New York to concur in the selection of an arbitrator, serving notice that, in the event of failure so to do, application would be made for appointment of one as provided by statute. This notice was ignored, and a form of …