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Presents updates on various court cases in the United States compiled for April 1889. Trial of the Bishop of Lincoln in the Archbishop of Canterbury's court; Publication of the collection of "Select Pleas of the Manorial and Other Seignorial Courts,"; Conviction and execution of Bathsheba Spooner for the murder of her husband. .

The article focuses on review of state court findings of fact by the U.S. Supreme court. In the Milk Wagon Drivers Union v. Meadowmoor Dairies Inc., the Supreme Court held that peaceful picketing could be enjoined without violating freedom of speech because the continuing effect of past acts of violence rendered that picketing unduly coercive. One of the major factors leading to disagreement in the Court was the different views taken as to the extent to which the Illinois court's findings of past violence and its future coercive effect were to be considered determinative. The question of the extent to which the Supreme Court will review evidence is implicit in every case coming up from the state courts.

The article discusses a case where a testator dies leaving three children, having had five during his life. Two obstacles beset the path of courts seeking this probable intent. The first is the traditional prohibition a court must not make the testator's will for him. Second is the doctrine of stare decision, not always operating openly in its technical sense, but rarely relinquishing its strong influence upon the habits of judicial thought. Whether these obstacles are necessary, to what extent the premises upon which they rest may be subject to reexamination, and where they conflict with the basic principles of construction announced by the courts which encounter them these three inquiries will be the subject of consideration in this essay.

The article discusses the business of the Supreme court at October term. Events are again demonstrating that in the context of the country's history, the history of the Supreme Court is a rhythm of quiescence and liveliness pulsating with alternating periods of relative placidity and vitality in American politics. Another lesson from the Court's history is the relation of the practical and procedural circumstances which attend adjudication to the effectiveness of the Court as constitutional arbiter.

The article reports on the rules against perpetuities. In addition to the foregoing powers, which concern the administration of the trust throughout its duration, it is usual and expedient to provide that trustees may sell assets for the purpose of making distribution among several beneficiaries at the termination of the trust. Such a power arises for the first time at the end of the trust period. It is a substitute for the more costly and inconvenient process of partition between co-owners in the courts. The foregoing argument has been addressed to powers in trustees to sell or lease during the continuance of the trust for administration purposes.

Analyzes the action of the U.S. Congress in remanding the case of Pocono Pines Assembly Hotels Co. v. U.S. to the Court of Claims. Questions on the nature of the decisions of the Court of Claims; Facts of the case.

Examines the grand jury as an investigatory body in the U.S. Definitions and origins of the grand jury; Scope and jurisdiction of the grand jury; Comparison of the grand jury with the legislature and the judiciary.

The authors set forth and analyze the results of a study of Pennsylvania's widely praised system of compulsory arbitration of small claims. They find that, despite some drawbacks, the procedure provides for the courts of limited jurisdiction on efficient means for the disposition of small claims and for the reduction of trial delay. In extrapolating the results of the study, however, they conclude that the evidence provides no basis to expect that compulsory arbitration will diminish significantly the case load of backlogged courts of general jurisdiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]