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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2009Dickensian court system
I saw another thread about Dickensian but didn't seem to answer my q' so here goes. In this article about George Will's column http://www.theseminal.com/2009/01/11/why-is-george-will-trying-to-scare-the-hell -out-of-us/ I found the sentence "I also saw, first-hand, how absolutely Dickensian our court system is" and author goes on to talk about how things take a long time to get done and so on. Wouldn't it make it more Kafkaesque (in the sense of "The Trial") than Dickensian? > I saw another thread about Dickensian but didn't seem to answer my q' > so here goes. > > In this article about George Will's column http://www.theseminal.com/2009/01/11/why-is-george-will-trying-to-scare-the-hell -out-of-us/ > I found the sentence "I also saw, first-hand, how absolutely > Dickensian our court system is" and author goes on to talk about how > things take a long time to get done and so on. > > Wouldn't it make it more Kafkaesque (in the sense of "The Trial") than > Dickensian? Dickens's novel Bleak House has as its main background a chancery trial about willls and property, Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce, that goes on for generations without reaching a conclusion. That is the reference made by George Will. Kafka's book The Trial is different, because the protagonist is arrested by criminal police but never finds out his supposed crime.  SignatureDon Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) >I saw another thread about Dickensian but didn't seem to answer my q' >so here goes. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] >Wouldn't it make it more Kafkaesque (in the sense of "The Trial") than >Dickensian? Here is the first web page to come up for me when searching for Jarndyce and Jarndyce: http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780099511458 "The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself." Jarndyce and Jardyce is an infamous lawsuit that has been in process for generations. Nobody can remember exactly how the case started but many different individuals have found their fortunes caught up in it... SignaturePaul Paul Wolff filted: >Here is the first web page to come up for me when searching for Jarndyce >and Jarndyce: [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >started but many different individuals have found their fortunes caught >up in it... "Individuals"?...how about that?...r Signature"You got Schadenfreude on my Weltanschauung!" "You got Weltanschauung in my Schadenfreude!" >Paul Wolff filted: >> [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > >"Individuals"?...how about that?...r Mr Powell can't spell Jarndyce consistently either. SignaturePaul >>Paul Wolff filted: >>> [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >> >Mr Powell can't spell Jarndyce consistently either. Possibly he hasn't got the will. SignatureRobin (BrE) Herts, England > On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:40:29 +0000, Paul Wolff > [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > (BrE) > Herts, England Thanks all. That reminds me of cases in India which too go on for ever and a bit! > > On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:40:29 +0000, Paul Wolff > > [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > Thanks all. That reminds me of cases in India which too go on for > ever and a bit! Coming in a bit late ... I myself worked on a contract litigation that took 25 years from start to finish and was, at one time or another, before six different federal courts and two administrative tribunals. It ended with a total thud when the contractor (or rather the trustee in bankruptcy) accepted approximately $100,000 in full settlement of a claim that at one time topped $20,000,000 (back when a million dollars was considered worth talking about). One of the opinions in the case, issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (no less), is generally regarded by practitioners in the field as one of the ten most boneheaded judicial opinions ever written about government contract law in the US. The case was therefore even worse than a total waste of time: It had true negative consequences. And that's the way I get my bread -- more than a trifle, I'm sorry to say. SignatureBob Lieblich Attorney at nonsense >One of the opinions in the case, issued by the United States Court of >Appeals for the Federal Circuit (no less), is generally regarded by >practitioners in the field as one of the ten most boneheaded judicial >opinions ever written about government contract law in the US. Isn't the CAFC where they make all the bonehead decisions about patent law? -GAWollman SignatureGarrett A. Wollman | The real tragedy of human existence is not that we are wollman@csail.mit.edu| nasty by nature, but that a cruel structural asymmetry Opinions not those | grants to rare events of meanness such power to shape of MIT or CSAIL. | our history. - S.J. Gould, Ten Thousand Acts of Kindness > >One of the opinions in the case, issued by the United States Court of > >Appeals for the Federal Circuit (no less), is generally regarded by [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Isn't the CAFC where they make all the bonehead decisions about patent > law? Indeed. But they really outdid themselves in this one. The opinion is Murdock Mach. & Eng'g Co. v. United States, 873 F.2d 1410, 1413 (Fed.Cir.1989). The court got some facts wrong, but that's only the beginning of hte problem. The essence of the case was that the Navy never promised Murdock the sort of relief it was claiming as a contractual right, but the court found a promise anyway. Anyone who knows anything about contract amendments without consideration in the federal system would either break out in raucous laughter or sit stunned after reading the opinion. I have colleagues who specialize in intellectual property law. They insist that the CAFC turns out a Murdock-equivalent every month or so in their specialty. My heart goes out to them. SignatureBob Lieblich Licking old wounds Pakku filted: >> On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:40:29 +0000, Paul Wolff >> [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >Thanks all. That reminds me of cases in India which too go on for >ever and a bit! Perhaps the case dragged on so long that the spelling of the name changed...I've got a chart here somewhere showing one branch of my family tree abruptly switching from "Lincecomb" to "Linthicum", and another doubling the F in "Moncrief"....r Signature"You got Schadenfreude on my Weltanschauung!" "You got Weltanschauung in my Schadenfreude!" |
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