Legal methods

Legal Methods
Relevant texts	Strauss' Legal Methods: Understanding and Using Cases and Statutes, 2d (University Casebook Series) (English and English Edition)
Related course(s)

2nd edition, 2008. TOC source [1]

I. INTRODUCTION. 2[edit | edit source]

1. What is “law”? 3

2. In particular, what is “the common law”? 5

3. How is the judicial system organized? 15

4. How is legislative activity organized? 24

5. Are legal methods static, or have they varied over time, as society and its legal institutions have developed? 31

• Paul Carrington, The Romance of American Law.....41

II. THE AGE OF DISCOVERY..... 37[edit | edit source]

A. INITIAL ENCOUNTERS 37

(1) A First Exercise in Statutory Construction 37

(2) A First Case ─ Swift v. Tyson 41

• Swift v. Tyson

B. COMMON-LAW COURTS ENCOUNTERING NEW ISSUES.. 51

• Priestly v. Fowler
• Farwell v. Boston & Worcester R.R. Corp

C. THE EFFECT OF A PRECEDENT ON A SUBSEQUENT CASE.... 73

• Albro v. The Agawam Canal Co.
• R. Kent Greenawalt, Reflections on Holding and Dictum

D. SYNTHESIS.... 85

• Seixas v. Woods
• Winterbottom v. Wright
• Thomas and Wife v. Winchester

III. THE AGE OF FAITH........ 105[edit | edit source]

A. DEVELOPING PRODUCT LIABILITY 105

• Loop v. Litchfield
• Losee v. Clute
• Devlin v. Smith
• Kellogg Bridge Co. v. Hamilton

B. ON WRONGFUL DEATH AND THE RELATION BETWEEN THE COMMON LAW AND STATUTES.. 116

• Mobile Life Ins. Co. v. Brame

C. WORKPLACE SAFETY AND THE RAILROADS.. 126

• Walter F. Dodd, Administration of Workmen's Compensation
• Kohn v. McNulta
• THE FEDERAL RAILROAD SAFETY APPLIANCES ACT OF 1893........... 140

THREE SAFETY APPLIANCES ACT PROBLEMS........... 142

LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUND TO THE FEDERAL RAILWAY SAFETY

APPLIANCES ACT 144

1. Presidential messages........... 144

2. House of Representatives Committee Report........... 146

3. Senate Debates........... 153

THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RAILWAY SAFETY APPLIANCES ACT........... 190

THE COURTS ENCOUNTER THE RSA 205

• Johnson v. Southern Pacific Co. (1902)
• Johnson v. Southern Pacific Co. (1904)
• Harry W. Jones, Some Causes of Uncertainty in Statutes
• Schlemmer V. Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg R. Co

IV. THE AGE OF ANXIETY........ 241[edit | edit source]

A. THE LIMITS OF FORMALISM.. 241

• Watkins v. Clark
• King v. Smythe
• Hynes v. New York Cent. R. Co.
• United Zinc & Chemical Company v. Britt et al.

B. THE PRODUCT LIABILITY/WARRANTY SYNTHESIS THROUGH THE 30'S.. 252

• MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co.
• Friend v. Childs Dining Hall Co.
• Ash v. Childs Dining Hall Co.
• Chysky v. Drake Bros. Co.
• Windram Mfg. Co. v. Boston Blacking Co.
• Pine Grove Poultry Farm, Inc. v. Newton By-Products Mfg. Co., Inc.
• Baxter v. Ford Motor Co.

C. FURTHER ON A SAFE WORKPLACE, WRONGFUL DEATH, AND THE USES OF STATUTES.. 293

(1) Changing Legal Institutions. 293

(2) Changing Judicial Approaches to Statutory Materials. 298

• International Stevedoring Co. v. Haverty
• Panama Railroad Co. v. Rock

(3) The Place of Custom 311

• The TJ Hooper

(4) Reconciling Statutory and Judicially-Created Remedies in the Workplace 314

• Swanson v. Marra Bros., Inc.
• Seas Shipping Co., Inc. v. Sieracki

D. THE SUPREME COURT ADJUSTS ITS ROLE IN RESPECT OF (STATE) COMMON LAW .. 331

• Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins

E. THE SUPREME COURT ADJUSTS ITS ROLE IN RESPECT OF STATUTES AND THEIR INTERPRETATION.. 338

• United States v. American Trucking Ass'ns, Inc.

NOTES ON POST NEW-DEAL STATUTORY INTERPRETATION 349

(1) What the Legislators Meant 352

• Schwegmann Bros. v. Calvert Distillers Corp.

NOTES ON THE EVALUATION OF LEGISLATIVE HISTORY..... 361

(2) What the Words Mean 365

• Schwegmann Bros. v. Calvert Distillers Corp.

(3) Statutes-in-Context 374

• Girouard v. United States

NOTES ON ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCY INTERPRETATION........... 386

F. A QUARTET OF THEORETICAL WRITINGS..... 391

IV. MODERN TIMES........ 411[edit | edit source]

A. FURTHER ON THE QUESTION OF PRODUCT LIABILITY 411

• Greenberg v. Lorenz
• Randy Knitwear, Inc. v. American Cyanamid Co.
• Goldberg v. Kollsman Instrument Corp.
• Codling v. Paglia
• Denny v. Ford Motor Co.
• American Law Institute, Third Restatement on Torts

B. CONTEMPORARY STATUTORY INTERPRETATION – THE NEW TEXTUALISM AND THE FEE REIMBURSEMENT PROBLEM.. 450

1. Setting the Context – Attorney Fee Reimbursement for the Parents of Children Wrongly Denied Special Care by Their School Board 457

• Smith v. Robinson

2. Congress Responds to Smith 480

I. Hearings........... 482

II. S. 415........... 483

III. H.R. 1523........... 500

IV. Conference Report........... 516

3. The Judicial/Legislative Dialogue Continues 527

• Crawford Fitting Co. et al. v. J.T. Gibbons, Inc.
• Missouri v. Jenkins
• Friedrich v. City of Chicago
• West Virginia University Hospitals, Inc. v. Casey

4. The Problem Solved? 560

• Neosho R-V School District v. Kathy Clark, et al.

5. Modern Scholarly Writings About the Interpretation Problem 569

a. Historical perspectives........... 570

b. Scholars (and scholar-judges) associated with Law and Economics........... 573

c. Textualists........... 579

• John F. Manning, Textualism and the Equity of the Statute
• Stephen Breyer, On the Uses of Legislative History in Interpreting Statutes

d. Purposivists........... 593

6. Recent Supreme Court Efforts – Resolution? 617

• BedRoc Limited, LLC v. United States
• Koons Buick Pontiac GMC, Inc. v. Bradley Nigh
• Keyse G. Jama v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

C. MORE ON THE PROBLEM OF AGENCY INTERPRETATION OF STATUTES.. 654

• Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
• Thomas W. Merrill, Textualism and the Future of the Chevron Doctrine

D. WHAT’S A JUDGE TO DO?.. 677

• Janine Collette v. St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital
• Gerard E. Lynch, What Judges Do, Part I