Erie questions

[DAVID EYMAN <DEYMAN@kentlaw.edu>]

1.  The rule of decision as to which a conflict existed in Erie was whether or 
not there was a license granted to the public to use the walkway and whether 
the railroad was negligent and owed a duty of care or whether it was 
considered trespassing.

2.  The soveriegns of New York, Pennsylvania, and federal law offered 
conflicting rules.

3.  Forum-soveriegn law comes into play when the court analyzes the local law 
of New York and says since there is no legislature regarding the question 
general law will apply and thus federal law.

4.  Erie could have been a false conflict by saying that Pennsylvania law 
wasn't different from the law from other states.

5.  The choice of law rule asserted by the railroad would be lex loci delecti 
and thus Pennsylvania law, which says that persons using pathways along the 
railroad right of way are trespassers.

6.  It's source was the Rules of Decision Act.

7.  Legislative history comes into Brandeis' decision because of a new draft 
of the act and its reference to statutory law.

8.	Brandeis and Story interpret the Rules of Decision Act differently because 
of the discovery of the legislative history by Brandeis.

9.  Constitutional power comes into Brandeis' analysis because of the commerce 
clause and that congress didn't have the power to legislate on this.

10.  It is not true that congress lacks the power to legislate as to 
commercial law it just wasn't determined at the time what the limits on 
Congress actually were.

11.  It is constitutional for federal courts hearing diversity cases to apply 
FRCP 23 rather than state law because of the supremacy clause of the 
Constitution and the rules enabling act.

12.  It was constitutional for federal courts to develop the "exclusionary 
rule" for criminal cases rather then relying on state law because of the 4th 
and 5th amendments.

13.  The court of appeals on remand needs to determine Pennsylvania law and 
then apply it to the facts and give judgment depending on this determination.