Ceteris paribus

Ceteris Paribus -- other things being equal
Cf, mutatis mutandis.

The French Connection

I watched The French Connection (1971) last night. The celebrated chase scene in which Gene Hackmen careens through the street pursuing a runaway commuter train lived up to its accolades. But overall, the movie was deeply unsatisfying, much like the 1970s as a whole.

De non apparentibus

De non apparentibus, et de non existentibus, eadem est ratio.
"What is not made to appear is to be treated as though it does not exist."

Four Words

"Die in an avalanche." Renata Tebaldi doing so, 1969.

And one wonders why some of these operas are only rarely staged today. I wager that an avalanche is just as hard to stage as a combination immolation/Rhine flood, but with far fewer devoted fans to snatch up tickets.

To Save for Later

An interesting situation: A state probate court's final and unappealable ruling modifying a testamentary trust so as to qualify as a valid QTIP trust for marital deduction purposes does not preclude a federal court from making an independent determination of the state property laws, as the probate adjudication was not a decision by the state's highest court. Thus, the federal court can hold that the probate court's modification is not valid and that the trust is not a QTIP. Estate of Rapp v. Commissioner, 140 F.3d 1211 (9th Cir. 1998).

Quere: how does this holding mesh with Erie? Does the RDA require deference only to determinations by a state's highest court? Or perhaps more pointedly, do federal courts think they can run rampant when the IRS is a party?

Lord Chancellor

One occasionally hears the assertion that St. Thomas More was the first layman elevated to the woolsack. My hunch has long been that this was surely incorrect, and Blackstone has vindicated me: Chief Justices Thorpe and Knyvet, attorneys and not clerics, served as successive chancellors to Edward III in 1372--1373. Blackstone, 3 Commentaries 645.

Hedges and Ditches

"Where two adjacent fields are separated by a hedge and ditch, the hedge prima facie belongs to the owner of the field in which the ditch is not."
Selwyn, 2 Abridgment of the Law of Nisi Prius 482 (1831).