Judicial System & Hard Cases

This paper will address the problems which "hard cases" present to the American judicial system. This paper will focus on the premise that judicial decisions which involve hard cases should be generated from principle and not policy. Moreover, this paper will discuss how judges may make mistakes when they rely solely on existing policies to formulate their decisions and how judges should instead be encouraged to rely on equitable principles whenever deciding hard cases.

One of the first "hard" cases which the American judicial system ever faced is the infamous case of Riggs v. Palmer. On August 13, 1880, widower Francis B. Palmer made his last will and testament, giving small legacies to his two daughters and the bulk of his estate to Elmer E. Palmer, Francis' grandson. Elmer's legacy was conditioned on his continued support of Francis' mother, Susan Palmer. However, in March of 1882, Francis married Mrs. Bresee. Elmer knew of the provisions in the will which favored him and was fearful that Francis would eventually revoke these provisions in favor of his new wife. In order to prevent such an eventuality, Elmer poisoned his grandfather. Francis' two daughters contested the will, arguing that Elmer should not be allowed to receive his legacy, having murdered Francis to gain it.

The Court of Appeals of New York held that Elmer should not be allowed to receive his legacy under the will. The court noted that, under the letter of the law, Elmer was entitled to his

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he judge is not tempted by policy considerations which might cause him or her to distribute benefits unequally from one decision to the next. Dworkin's article also examined how a philosophical judge might, in appropriate cases, apply legal principles to resolve hard civil cases. Dworkin says a fair and philosophical judge should limit the gravitational force of previous case decisions to the main principles which justify those decisions. Dworkin reasoned that, if an earlier case decision was based entirely on an application of a particular policy, then that case's decision would have little gravitational weight and thus would not be useful in helping to decide subsequent cases. Dworkin also used the argument espoused by Professor Hart which says that hard cases arise because legal rules often have an "open texture." Another important issue which Dworkin's article focused on was the situation which occurred when a judge had to decide a case in an area without settled theory of law. Dworkin suggests that judges should begin their analysis by asking themselves what principles are relevant to this case which are implicit in the settled law. However, critics of Dworkin's approach argue that the adoption of this approach wou

Category: Government - J