Description
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) The Role of Circuit Courts in the Formation of United States Law in the Early Republic: Following Supreme Court Justices Washington Livingston Story and Thompson by His Honour Dr David Lynch
This book highlights the contribution of four Associate Justices (Washington Livingston Story and Thompson) as presiding judges of their respective circuit courts during the Marshall era in order to establish that in those early years federal law grew from the ‘inferior courts’ upwards rather than down from the Supreme Court. It does so after a reading of over 1800 mainly circuit opinions and over 2000 original letters which reveal the sources of law upon which the justices drew and their efforts through correspondence to achieve consistency across the circuits. The documents examined present insights into momentous social political and economic issues facing the Union and demonstrate how these justices dealt with them on circuit.