Trial Court Research Articles

"Hugo Will Pull My Hair Out": Justice Black and Mandatory Arbitration on the Warren Court

"Hugo Will Pull My Hair Out":Justice Black and Mandatory Arbitration on the Warren Court Theodore Salem-Mackall (bio) Call arbitration what you want, but do not call it uncontroversial. Early common-law courts refused to enforce contractual agreements to arbitrate claims, holding that parties' could not "oust" courts of their jurisdiction.1 Early American courts adopted this "ouster doctrine," and treated arbitration agreements as "revocable at will."2 Their skepticism, along with a dollop of private sector lobbying, lead to the 1925 passage of the Federal Arbitration Act. The FAA made agreements to arbitrate "as enforceable as other contracts" in federal court.3At the time of the FAA's passage, concerns existed that large corporate interests would use mandatory arbitration clauses contained in form contracts to frustrate worthy claims. The FAA's congressional advocates intended for the bill to have a narrow scope in order to forestall this.4 Yet a few progressive members of Congress were not relieved by such promises. Among them was a young Alabama senator who, though he would not actually join Congress until a year after the FAA's passage, opposed expanding the scope of mandatory arbitration throughout his life: Hugo Lafayette Black. Justice Black, who served on the Court from 1937–1971, is best known for his monumental decisions on school desegregation, freedom of the press, and procedural protections for criminal defendants.5 What he is less known for is his status as one of the Supreme Court's foremost critics of mandatory arbitration. From 1961–67, Black dissented in six cases enforcing a mandatory arbitration clause contained in a contract or collective bargaining agreement.6 His dissents often argued that strict enforcement of arbitration clauses came at the expense of a party's constitutional right to their "day in court."7 The early Warren Court shared Black's concerns. In 1953, the Court held in Wilko v. Swan that the right to bring Securities Act claims in [End Page 54] federal court could not be waived through a form contract containing an arbitration agreement.8 Yet this hostility did not last. In 1967, a very different Warren Court decided Prima Paint v. Flood & Conklin.9 Prima established that the Federal Arbitration Act made arbitration agreements "valid, irrevocable and enforceable" in federal court,10 and superseded any contrary state arbitration rules in diversity cases.11 The decision implicitly overruled a 1956 Supreme Court holding that the Federal Arbitration Act was a procedural statute that could "affect the rule of decision," and could violate Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins if applied to override contrary state law. Prima Paint also made arbitration clauses "severable" from the rest of contracts, allowing arbitrators to review "fraud in inducement" defenses to breach claims rather than courts.12 Prima marked the first in a long line of Supreme Court cases that gradually established modern "liberal enforcement" of arbitration clauses.13 Justice Black opposed every aspect of the case. In a dissent longer than the opinion, he described it as a "statutory mutilation."14 Hugo Black and the Federal Arbitration Act Black's skepticism of arbitration stemmed from his wariness of corporate power and deep belief in each person's right to a fair "day in court." Throughout his life, Black displayed a deep respect for the right to fair trials decided by impartial courts. He began his career as a Birmingham trial lawyer. This experience left him with a "devout belief" in the jury system, and in his eventual political career he pushed for stronger procedural safeguards in trial courts. To Black, only procedures which ensured fundamental fairness could allow the judiciary to achieve just outcomes and maintain its legitimacy.15 Black's political career was shaped by the Great Depression. The traumatic experience of watching Alabama residents beg for food pushed him to support the New Deal's efforts to regulate capitalism. As a Senator from 1927 to 1937, this support brought him into conflict with a range of "high-powered, deceptive, telegram-fixing, letter-framing, Washingtonvisiting [lobbyists]."16 Black sparred with special interests over his attempts to provide municipal power to impoverished Alabama towns.17 He watched them push for exemptions to his Black-Connery bill...

Exclusion of Evidence – An Empirical Study in Trial Courts: A Defendant's Future Depends on Judges’ Gender and Past Working Experience

Exclusion of Evidence – An Empirical Study in Trial Courts: A Defendant's Future Depends on Judges’ Gender and Past Working Experience

Fair trial rights, pre-trial civil motions in pending criminal cases and abuse of court process with reference to the Free State asbestos pre-trial motion proceedings

South Africans have become accustomed to almost daily news reports of litigation in our courts that involve politically powerful and well-connected individuals. The perception by the public is that in many instances litigants approach the courts for other reasons than achieving justice and are therefore misusing our courts and its processes.1 This becomes a matter of concern when such perceptions affect the trust and confidence that the public holds in respect of the judicial system and the rule of law. The recent Free State asbestos pre-trial motion proceedings illustrate some of these concerns. This article first comments on the judgment of the Free State high court in this matter, and focusses on the unmeritorious aspects of the applications made. These aspects included a claim that the applicants’ right to a fair trial were infringed, and the applicants’ disregard for the established principle against preliminary civil motions emanating from criminal proceedings. Legal practitioners advise their clients and must do so responsibly. For that reason, the second part of the article comments on the professional rules of conduct against the abuse of the court process in relation to legal practitioners’ obligations to both their clients and the court. This duty includes not to litigate causes or raise defences that have little chance of success or where they are initiated by litigants for purposes other than achieving justice. Improper purposes include delaying the proceedings to escape criminal liability and ultimately, accountability. In order to curb pre-trial litigation in any court other than the criminal trial court, the article proposes an extension of the Criminal Procedure Act to clarify when such other court may be approached for relief. It also proposes that a certificate of probable cause accompanies all pre-trial motions that emanate from criminal proceedings in a court other than the trial court.

Applying an Appropriate Standard of Evidence in Victim Identification Policies and Practice in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Thailand

Human trafficking remains to be a bane in our time undermining economic progress and perpetuating inequities by setting vulnerable communities who fall prey to it further back. This vicious cycle increases the risk of re-trafficking for victims who escape, and leaves layered trauma experiences unaddressed. To counter this, labor-receiving countries need to connect human trafficking victims to social services that utilize victim-centered and trauma-informed approaches geared toward victim restoration. Often the first step in accessing these services is victim identification. However, officers of government frontline agencies with the mandate to enforce the anti-human trafficking law apply very strict standards in their screening method. The perceived outcome of cases in trial plays a crucial role in victim determination. Thus, there is the tendency to apply evidentiary standards appropriate for a court trial in victim identification. Such practice tends to be adversarial where the burden of proof is paced on the victim’s shoulders. Utilizing the standards of evidence as a conceptual framework has the potential of shifting rigid procedures and processes. The standards of evidence framework can calibrate and adjust current practices in victim identification to the appropriate threshold in favor of potential victims of trafficking accessing and receiving victim-centered services.

Military Court Trials of Civilians in Pakistan

The call to try civilians in military courts in 2022 reignited the debate surrounding the legitimacy of quasi-judicial tribunals, and their exercise of jurisdiction over civilians. Regarding trials of civilians in military tribunals, there have been many judgments and academic discourses. There are diverging views either endorsing or condemning this sui generis practice. The higher courts have not decided the matter conclusively. Pakistan does not subscribe to the idea of the direct effect of international treaties. Yet, like any other dualist state, many rights guaranteed in such treaties have been incorporated into its constitution. There is a stark contrast, however, between the case law interpretation of these rights and their international corresponding equivalents in the transnational regimes. The international mechanisms for the protection of rights still pose many questions on the legitimacy of civilians being tried in military courts. More confusion arises with the proliferation of contemporary idea of sustainable justice, which seems divergent and somewhat in contravention of such Pakistani state practices. This qualitative research paper juxtaposes the traditional constitutional interpretations with contestations in relevant international instruments and explores the possibility of harmonization. It lays out a futuristic proposal to predict a direction for proposed future amendments. The same would be done with the increasingly important idea of sustainable justice which directly relates to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16. Moreover, as indispensable themes, the paper explores the following: whether the trial of civilians in military courts is a constitutionally sound practice. Does trying civilians in military courts infringe upon Pakistan’s international obligations? And is the expediency behind these specialized courts still prevalent in the country?

A corpus-based interpretation of the discourse–cognitive–society triangle on Chinese court judgments

A court judgment is a common legal discourse and the final carrier of court trial activities. From the perspective of socio-cognitive discourse analysis, this study aims to describe and explore the Chinese court judgments in a corpus-based method, concentrating on the interactions among discourse, cognitive, and social dimensions. We have three key findings through an empirical qualitative analysis of the court judgments in China. First, the discourse dimension of Chinese court judgments is both society-oriented and cognition-oriented. The discourse components could mark the cognition sources in court judgments. Second, the cognitive source of faith is a part of social cognition on law and regulation, and induction and paraphrase provide the personal cognition to testimony, documentary, or hearsay evidence. Besides, the cognitive source of inference could change personal cognition into a social consensus through a reasoning process. Third, the social function of court judgments corresponds to the cognitive source and builds the surface structure with various discourse components. Moreover, a probe into the multi-dimensional relationship in court judgments can offer practical insights into the interpretation of legal texts in Chinese judicial decision-making.

THE PRUDENCE OF ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGES IN THE DIGITAL EVIDENCE IN THE ERA OF APPLYING E-GOVERNMENT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

In this research, the use of digital evidence in courts is studied. State administrators, including the executive and the legislative, must use information technology (e-government), especially the judiciary. Digital evidence is also frequently utilised to resolve administrative disputes between states. Judges should be able to look over and evaluate cases that involve digital evidence in order to do this. The Supreme Court has issued PERMA Number 1 of 2019 concerning the Electronic Administration of Cases and Trials in Courts in order to get ready to adapt to changes in the digitalization of electronic services (e-government). This time, the Supreme Court is taking reforming the justice system’s information technology field seriously as seen by the E-Court. Administrative Court Judges can make an effort, but in the digital age, Administrative Judges must pay attention to the entire e-government system. For instance, licencing now involves an integrated online system that includes components of the regional government, the provincial government, and the government centre. These factors make it possible for administrative judges to consult with web professionals. Because it is virtually difficult for an administrative judge to have good and accurate understanding of digital forensics, digital web forensic experts are required when proving matters at the Administrative Court. Web-based experts will provide insight into a case, assisting State Administrative judges in making judgements. The Supreme Court should hold education and training regarding online licensing, online registration, and online validation carried out by the executive. Administrative judges should not hesitate to present web expert witnesses to explain an administrative case.

Non-defendant bad character and s. 100 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003: A socio-legal analysis of admissibility gateways and trial tactics

This article presents a socio-legal analysis of the use of non-defendant bad character evidence in Crown Court criminal trials in England. Combining an in-depth doctrinal analysis of s. 100 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 with original qualitative empirical methods (interviews with trial counsel and observations of real Crown Court trials), the article explores the real-life practical operation of this rule of exclusion and its associated inclusionary exceptions, and the role that non-defendant bad character can have on trial tactics of counsel. In doing so, it argues that illogical Court of Appeal decisions on the use of bad character for credibility purposes are causing confusion in practice, that the ‘tit-for-tat’ gateway for defendant bad character is a more significant hurdle than s. 100 itself, and that counsel often eschew bad character applications for fear of alienating the jury.

Udzielanie pouczeń nieprofesjonalnym uczestnikom rozprawy sądowej. Problem komunikatywności

The goal of this article is to discuss the problem of communicativeness of the instructions given by judges to non-professional participants of court trials. The background of the considerations are the results of empirical research on communication in the courtroom, which, among other things, show that judges are significantly active in giving instructions. Drawing on research conducted within the “plain language” movement, the author points out those elements of instructions that increase their communicativeness and those that decrease it. As a result, some hints were formulated as an answer on question – how to increase the communicativeness of instructions given at the court trial?

An Introduction to Pennsylvania Legal Research for Academic Librarians and Researchers

This article reviews electronic Pennsylvania legal research resources available to academic librarians and researchers, the structure of the Pennsylvania state government, and the types of information published by each branch of the government. The executive branch publishes the Pennsylvania Bulletin (the state’s administrative register) and the Pennsylvania Code (the state’s administrative code). The laws passed by the Pennsylvania state legislature are codified in two separate statutory codes: Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes and Pennsylvania Statutes. The legislature also publishes legislative history for statutes that can help to determine the intent of the legislature when the law was passed. The Pennsylvania courts consist of trial courts, two intermediate appellate courts, and a supreme court. All levels of courts publish case decisions and rules to govern court procedure. Citators help to determine whether a case decision is still valid.

KEKUATAN PEMBUKTIAN ALAT BUKTI ELEKTRONIK DALAM PERADILAN PIDANA E-LITIGASI BERLANDASKAN NILAI KEADILAN

There are problems applying the principles contained in the Criminal Procedure Code, where the emergence of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 or Covid-19 at the end of 2019 had a major impact on the world. This virus has claimed many lives in Indonesia, which has the highest number of infected and dead in Southeast Asia. The Covid-19 virus itself, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) is transmitted through one of them through droplets of people who have been infected which cause obstacles in a number of face-to-face activities, one of which is in terms of law enforcement in Indonesia. Along with the development of this virus which has not shown a decline, the three finally had time to make a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) contained in the cooperation agreement between the Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia, the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Indonesia, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia Number: 402/DJU/HM.01.1 /4/2020, Number : KEP-17/E/Ejp/04/2020, Number : PAS- 08.HH.05.05 Year 2020 concerning the Implementation of Trials Through Teleconference. As a result of this MoU, there is a change in the procedural law process in court. The development of the E-Court, which so far has only been limited to serving the administration of cases electronically by adding electronic services, has received legal protection based on the Regulation of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia Number 1 of 2019 concerning the Administration of Cases and Trials in Courts Electronically. E-court is a court instrument as a form of service to the community in terms of registering cases simultaneously with evidence in electronic courts, so if we refer to the criminal law of proof in a case, the existence of online or other names called E-Litigation is not in accorkemudiance with the theory of justice, where the theory of justice itself according to Aristotle understands justice in understanding equality

New Format Idea in Dissolution Application Political Parties in Indonesia

This research formulates several problems, namely: 1) why do reasons and applicants for the dissolution of political party in Indonesia need to be extended in the request?, 2) how is the ius constituendum of the stage of the application for the dissolution of political party in Indonesia? The research method used a juridical normative method by using a philosophical approach and a legislative approach. The results of the research show that corruption must also be included in one of the reasons for the dissolution of a political party, because corruption is a crime that can cause harm for the community. As for the extension of applicants, the urgency can be viewed from four factors. First, the principle of popular sovereignty that adopted by Indonesia. Second, the concept of rechtsstaat that adopted by Indonesia. Third, giving the government the role to be the only applicant in the application for dissolution of a political party will obstruct the process of supervision of political party carried out by the people. Fourth, one of the political party financial resources are from the APBN / APBD, so people reserve the right for the accountability of the use of APBD/APBN by political party. There are two stages in the constituendum of the dissolution of political parties in Indonesia, namely: 1) the stage of submitting an application to the Constitutional Court, 2) the stage of trial in the Constitutional Court. The trial stage consists of five stages: First, preliminary examination. Second, the follow-up trial. Third, the verification process. Fourth, Judicial Consultation Meeting (JCM). Fifth, the reading of the decision by the constitutional judges

An empirical study on the client’s perspective in decision making with regard to lawyer selection for trial courts: Does grey hair matter?

An empirical study on the client’s perspective in decision making with regard to lawyer selection for trial courts: Does grey hair matter?

The Stability of Fortunes: A Free Black Woman, Her Legacy, and the Legal Archive in Antebellum New Orleans

After Eugene Macarty’s death in 1846, his white distant heirs sued Eulalie Mandeville, Eugene’s partner of fifty years and a free woman of color, for approximately $155,000. This article follows the trial that ensued, Macarty et al. v. Mandeville, a Louisiana civil suit that lasted two years, spanned more than 350 pages of written testimony and evidence, involved some of New Orleans’s leading families, and concerned one of the largest fortunes held by a free Black woman in antebellum America. By employing a close reading of a single lawsuit, this article shows that trial court records function as a form of archives in themselves and Black Americans both used and produced those archives. Reading a trial record as an archive, that is, for its very intentionality, careful and selective curation, and coproduction, reveals the myriad ways Black Americans collected, collated, preserved, and interacted with documents and therefore shaped the narratives the archives tell.

Penegakan Hukum Luar Biasa Atas Kejahatan Ekosida Sebagai Extraordinary Crime Dalam Konsep Hukum Lingkungan Internasional

The quality of the environment is the most important part of human life in dignity and humility. In practice, ecocide are mostly committed by corporations, both national and transnational. Environmental crimes that are structured and systematic or often called ecocide do not concern as an extraordinary crimes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has proposed to several countries such as Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Maldives that the need to add elements as international criminal crimes categorized as extra ordinary crimes in the Rome Statute and recognized as the fifth type of crime that becomes the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court for trial. The purpose of this research is as a contribution to answer question. First, to analyze and to understand in developing extraordinary law enforcement against the crime of ecocide as extraordinary crime. Second, law enforcement review against ecocides in various regulations and various court decisions in Indonesia Third, to analyze the concept of international environmental law in the extraordinary enforcement law against ecocide crimes (Extra ordinary Crime) The research method used by researchers is normative juridical approach. This means that the legal material used as a study is secondary data. In this normative legal research it is not closed the possibility that empirical data (field) is also presented as an option to support and sharpen the study

Crime of Murder by a Child as the Perpetrator A Criminal Psychology Perspective

The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze several issues regarding the legal arrangements for the settlement of criminal acts of murder committed by children, the causes of criminal acts of murder committed by children in the perspective of criminal psychology, and criminal policy in law enforcement of criminal acts of murder against children who commit criminal acts of murder. The background is because the diversion mechanism for children who commit murder is difficult to reach an agreement, so that in the end the trial in court becomes the last resort and in the end the child ends up in the Children's Correctional Institution. Although the trial uses the juvenile criminal justice system with a restorative justice approach in every implementation, in reality there are still many law enforcement officials, both judges, prosecutors and police who still view a child in committing a crime as being blamed for his actions without looking at the aspects that occur both from within and outside the child. The results showed that the criminal act of murder committed by children was more due to external factors from the environment and family around the perpetrator, although diversion is very difficult to reach an agreement between the victim and the perpetrator so that very often the perpetrators of criminal acts of murder committed by children end up in prison, but judges still have to seek diversion and restorative justice as a form of protection for children. In terms of sentencing, judges are given the freedom to look at the law, jurisprudence, legal science or doctrine and the factors that cause crimes committed by children, both internal and external factors. However, in practice judges use only the written law in determining sentences or are limited to the prosecutor's indictment.

Pragmatic Markers in an Appellate Court Judgment: General Brigadier, A.M Adekunle (Rtd) V. Rockview

Purpose: Linguistics is the scientific study of language; however its meta-implications in Appellate court judgment is yet to be given as much scholarly attention as other legal genres. Most studies on courtroom and particularly court judgement have focused on stylistic analysis, speech act and genre analysis; consequently studies on non-propositional meanings are still lean. Therefore, this study in the bid to further describe language of judges and account for how language is organised to achieve justice, investigated the nature and function pragmatic markers in a select Nigerian Appellate Court Judgement.
 Methodology: Using a Purposive random sampling technique, the study selected a property case judgement titled General Brigadier, A.M Adekunle (Rtd) V. Rockview from the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports (1999-2004). It adopted Fraser’s 1996 Pragmatic Marker Theory and mixed method of analysis –The quantitative was used in analysing the frequencies of the types of pragmatic markers employed by the judge while pragmatic imports of the markers in the ApCJ were discussed qualitatively.
 Findings: These analyses revealed that the selected ApCJ, though linguistic, is also replete with the four variants of pragmatic markers: Basic (44.9% marker), commentary (37.8%) and discourse markers (10.35%) and parallel (3.45%) identified by Fraser’s .The appellate judge used the basic markers particularly (the declarative markers) to build up the fact of the case and signal his opinions about them and the imperative markers were verdict pronounced. Commentary markers with (37.8%) were the second class of pragmatic marker observed in the (ApCJ). It comprised the following : Hearsay (3.45%), evidential (13.8%), contrastive markers (3.45%) assessment markers (13.7%) and emphasis marker (6.9%).The judge used more of evidential markers and assessment to predicate his judicial argumentation, implicitly justify the trial court’s judgement and thereby build logical bases for partly disallowing the appeal .
 Recommendation: The language of ApCJs is laden with pragmatic markers which serve essentially to build up and issues of the case, provide judicial argumentation and ultimately construct the verdicts. Pragmatic makers are greatly exploited by the appellate judge for effective adjudication. Therefore applied linguists and Forensic experts should critically investigate them to ascertain the correctness of the ratio dicidendi and the judge’s obiter dictum -crucial variables for establishing judicial accountability and fairness.

Introduction Theory and Practice Court Procedural Law Constitution

Laws that develop in society sued the Court for follow development law these, including procedural law. Development procedural law of the Constitutional Court in practice need ijtihad from the Constitutional Court in skeleton find law new to use enforce supremacy constitution, democracy, justice and rights constitutional inhabitant country. Writing this use method approach juridical normative: that is the approach used for study or analyze secondary data in the form of materials primary law and materials law secondary Terms general procedural law arrange about provisions that are general, i.e provision about trial, conditions application, and regarding verdict. Provision in Thing trial in the Constitutional Court, for example, the Court examines, hears, and cut off in hearing plenary attended by all judges consisting of over 9 (nine) people, only in " outside " state normal”, then hearing plenary the attended at least 7 (seven) Constitutional Justices. State outside normal that meant is die world or disturbed physical / soul so that no capable doing the obligation as Judge. Conclusion from article this is The Constitutional Court's procedural law is intended as applicable procedural law by general in things that become the authority of the Constitutional Court as well as applicable procedural law by special for every authority meant. The existence of the Court with the authority possessed bring up needs existence law new, that is procedural law, and develop it in skeleton enforce law in Indonesia.

Business Dispute Settlement Through Mediation in State Courts and Arbitration Institutions

In social life, there are often differences in perceptions between humans, causing problems or disputes, whether minor or serious. Likewise in the relationship of economic activities or more commonly known as business relations. Not infrequently humans experience a clash and differences of opinion that lead to disputes. Various problems will always arise in business as long as humans run their business solely for profit, so there are often differences of opinion because the parties will not be harmed which will eventually lead to disputes. In the end, dispute resolution, especially business disputes, is often resolved through a trial in court through a lawsuit by one of the parties who feel aggrieved. However, what was expected from the settlement turned out to be unsatisfactory for the parties because the settlement through litigation sometimes took a long time to obtain legal certainty so that it actually harmed business people because of the loss of time, energy and materials. As an alternative to resolving business disputes, business actors have a tendency to avoid disputes in court and choose to use mediation or through arbitration institutions. This study will briefly describe the comparison of business dispute resolution through court mediation with settlement through arbitration institutions. The research was conducted through descriptive empirical legal research.

An Appraisal on the Protection of the Rights of Accused Persons Standing Trial before a Competent Court of Law under the Cameroonian Legal System

An accused person, otherwise referred to in French as “le prevenu”, is a person who must appear before the trial court to answer to the charge brought against him whether in respect of a simple offence, a misdemeanor or a felony [1]. The Cameroon Criminal Procedure Code upholds the trial rights of accused persons. The code like the 1996 Constitution of Cameroon provides a platform for the implementation of criminal norms in the country. It also helps protect accused persons from arbitrary and unjust laws and sanctions. The present Criminal Code harmonized the two procedural codes that existed in Francophone and Anglophone Cameroon which were the Code d’Instruction Criminelle, and the Criminal Procedure Ordinance respectively. These trial rights of accused persons are upheld through a legal process by the trial courts of Law in Cameroon. This therefore means that the rights of accused persons are therefore suppose to be treated in a particular way during a criminal trial. These rights embody the right to be given something as well as the right to be allowed to do something in a specific manner. Adopting purely qualitative research method involving purely content analysis of cases and relevant statutes, this paper conclude that the government has made efforts in respecting the rights of accused persons standing trial before a competent court of law but its efforts are inadequate. Notwithstanding, finding a compromise between the respects of the rights of accused persons standing trial before a competent court of law with societal interest has never been a trouble-free assignment. To this end, the paper seeks to examine the protection of the rights of accused persons as are confectioned in the criminal procedure code and its extent of implementation as we sought to respond to the main question, to what extent does the Cameroon government guarantee the respect of the rights of accused persons standing trial before a competent court of law?