Mumford on Holmes and Anglo-American Equity

Ann Mumford, Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London , has posted Re-Enacting The Judicial Philosophy Of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: Saunders v. Vautier and Claflin v. Claflin Compared:

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Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (NYPL) Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. sat on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1889, when, in the case of Claflin v Claflin , he joined the decision that a trust may not be modified if the intention of the testator would be undermined. Claflin rejected Lord Cottenham's reasoning in Saunders v Vautier that, under certain circumstances, beneficiaries may compel the termination of the trust and transfer the property to them. Claflin v Claflin and Saunders v Vautier are perhaps the two most famous cases in Anglo-American Equity. Through a detailed examination of manuscripts, this article offers a comparative expansion of the US and English histories, and particularly considers the role played by Holmes. Re-enactment theory offers the possibility of creating, or reliving, the intellectual process that led to Claflin , thus revealing a significant moment in the history of US federalism.

--Dan Ernst