Also known as: general laws
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A body of unwritten common-law principles drawn from natural-law traditions and judicial precedents that federal courts applied independently of any particular state's decisions in diversity cases before Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins.
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Genevieve Gardner, a member of a Native American church, was fired after using peyote during a religious ceremony. State officials denied her unemployment benefits under a neutral criminal prohibition on the drug that applied to all citizens. The denial stood because the prohibition was a generally applicable law that incidentally burdened religious practice.
Giana Greco obtained a final damages judgment in State A against Grandview Holdings for breach of contract. She then sought to register and enforce the judgment in State B where the company held assets. State B courts were required to give the judgment the same effect it received in State A under the constitutional command.
Gwen Gallagher was injured while walking along a railroad track in Pennsylvania. She sued Erie Railroad Co. in federal court under diversity jurisdiction. The court applied general law rather than Pennsylvania decisions to determine whether the railroad owed a duty to undiscovered trespassers.
Guillermo Guzman was charged with murder by information rather than grand-jury indictment under California procedure. He argued that the Fifth Amendment required indictment in all capital cases. The Court held that the Due Process Clause did not incorporate the grand-jury requirement against the states through general law principles.
Glenn Gross's church sought to expand its building but was blocked by a city zoning ordinance of general application. He claimed the ordinance violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Court ruled that Congress lacked power under Section Five to impose the Act's strict scrutiny standard on neutral, generally applicable state laws.
Gerald Gibson sued Parklane Hosiery Co. for securities fraud after the SEC had already obtained an injunction against the company on the same facts. The Court permitted Gibson to use the prior findings offensively against the company under general principles of collateral estoppel.
Federal courts applied a body of unwritten common-law principles drawn from natural law and judicial precedents rather than following the common-law decisions of the state where the events occurred.
Supporting sources
The concepts are distinct. General law refers to the pre-Erie body of federal common law applied in diversity cases.
Supporting sources
No. The clause addresses credit for public acts and judgments, not application of the historical general law doctrine in federal courts.
Supporting sources
…no statute of the State on the subject, the railroad's duty and liability is to be determined in federal courts as a matter of general law. The trial judge refused to rule that the applicable law precluded recovery. The jury brought in a verdict of $30,000; and the judgment entered thereon was affirmed by the Circuit Court of…