Talk:Erie doctrine

Good start
I hope I didn't change the meaning of anything important in my copyedits. Keep up the good work. - Taxman 21:30, Apr 4, 2005 (UTC)

Not quite right
I'm studying for my own Civ Pro exam and so don't have time to update the page myself, but this version of the Hanna and Byrd-Erie approaches are far more scantily explained than in other sources. For example, there's not a decent discussion of the difference between the Guided and Unguided Erie approach under Hanna.

another change?
gasperini is not the most recent. SIMTEK is 2001 case

Contradiction in first paragraph?
The first paragraph seems to be self-contradictory. It starts by stating: "It is important to note that the Erie doctrine does not apply to cases involving federal statutory law, but only those cases that are in federal court because of diversity jurisdiction." Fair enough, but the same paragraph closes with the following statement: "An 'Erie' problem does not necessarily have to involve a diversity case, although the landmark cases were all diversity cases."

The court has stated that Erie is not just a diversity doctrine. Meaning, it applies to cases that come through subject matter jurisdiction statutes other than s. 1332. However, outside of s. 1332 cases, it is less likely to be an issue, because in, say, 1331/1343 cases, there aren't likely to be many state law issues, where the cause of action is created by a federal statute (42 U.S.C. 1983). Generally speaking, in non-1332 cases, and in 1331 cases, it will be the case that federal law exists to answer the question. Otherwise the case probably wouldn't be in federal court. --However-- if that hypothetical 1331/1343 case did somehow involve a question of state law, the court would have to resolve it as the state would, not according to some "higher body" of brooding and omnipresent common law. The article isn't well-worded yet, but this is hard stuff to explain. However, the gist of what's written is not inaccurate. Does this clear it up in any way? Non Curat Lex (talk) 09:56, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

This needs some work
But since I'm studying for my own civ pro final, I don't have time to do anything with it. The discussion of the two approaches for when there is a Federal Rule involved vs. when it's a mere federal practice is confusing and innaccurate. We need someone with civil procedure expertise to step in here. See http://www.west.net/~smith/erie.htm for the proper analysis of an Erie conflict (it's at the bottom of the page).

Agree. It gives some information to a person who has never heard of it and has no idea what it means, but it is undetailed and confusing enough to be misleading. It is misleading to state, without more, that Erie cites no provision of the Constitution that Swift violated. I have many sources that can be added to document this article, and some fixes I'd like to make, so I will add this to my personal watchlist of articles to work on. Non Curat Lex (talk) 23:43, 21 January 2008 (UTC).