Erie R. Co. v Tompkins- US Supreme Court (1938)

Ponda Baba, an Aqualish smuggler, was peacefully enjoying a drink in Chalmun's Cantina in Mos Eisley, Tatooine one afternoon when a young Jedi approached him, and began to hassle the bartender Wuher, one of Ponda's friends, for a beer. Seeing that the Jedi had not paid for his drink, and knowing how upset Wuher got when droids entered the cantina, even briefly, Ponda decided to stick up for his friend, and had his partner, Dr. Cornelius Evasan translate his dislike for the arrogant Jedi. Suddenly, an older Jedi appeared and unprovokedly sliced off Ponda's arm with a lightsaber.

Under Tatooine case law (law created by court decisions, rather than by legislative statutes), Jedi were given a certain amount of leeway (to prevent unnecessary Imperial attention), and Ponda knew that any planetary court was likely to dismiss any claim he filed against his attackers.

Ponda therefore decided to file a claim in Tatooine's Imperial District Court based on diversity of citizenship (usually only Imperial issues are tried in Imperial courts, but planetary issues are allowed when, as in Ponda's case, both parties are from different planets and the amount of damages requested exceeds 75,000 credits. This is known as diversity of citizenship, and is meant to protect the non-planetary resident from bias in a planetary court).

When a planetary issue is tried in Imperial Court, the court is required to apply planetary law rather than Imperial law, in order to prevent plaintiffs from bringing suit in Imperial law just to escape unfavorable planetary law (this is known as "forum shopping"). However, at the time Ponda brought his suit against the Jedis, the Imperial court was only required to apply "written" planetary law, which included planetary statutes, but not planetary case law. Since there was no Tatooine statute prohibiting Jedi violence in cantinas, the Imperial court was free to decide the case based on Imperial common law (basically however they wanted), and awarded Ponda his requested damages.

The Jedi appealed the ruling, which was affirmed by the Imperial Appellate Court, and finally petitioned the Imperial Supreme Court. The Imperial Supreme Court reversed the decision, and held in favor of the Jedi. They reasoned that allowing Imperial courts to apply Imperial common law in cases with only planetary issues created a loophole to the prohibition of forum shopping. Under the law as it was, anyone (like Ponda) could use diversity of citizenship as a means of avoiding bringing suit in a planetary court. They pointed to an earlier case (Black & White AT-ATs v Brown & Yellow AT-ATs), where an AT-AT rental company actually moved to a different planet in order to meet the requirements of diversity of citizenship and avoid planetary law. Based on that negative precedent, the Imperial Supreme Court reversed, and held that Imperial courts were hereinafter required to apply both planetary statutes AND planetary case law when deciding diversity of citizenship cases.

The Trial of Han Solo

This comes on recommendation from our friend Andy E., after seeing how great a fit it was, we had no choice but to post it. This site had utterly no hand in making this, but it's grand. Just grand.

Vocabulary of the Law: Desultory- (Used in United States v. Hamilton, United States District Court of the District of Columbia, 1960)

Desultory- Lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm. (Oxford English Dictionary)

(as used in the majority opinion)-

"[The defendant and the deceased] played several games of pool. They imbibed intoxicating beverages in the rear of the establishment, and they also carried on desultory conversations. There was an exchange of banter between the deceased and the defendant, which developed into an argument, and finally into an acrimonious quarrel..."
United States v. Hamilton (1960)

Ponda Baba and his close chum and drinking buddy Dr. Evazan were enjoying a relaxing afternoon in Chalmun's Cantina in Mos Eisley listening to the house band Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, carrying on desultory conversation and recanting of old stories with their fellow patrons. A young human pulled up to the bar and knocked Ponda Baba's drink over without apologizing, Ponda Baba recognized that a "party foul" had occurred and wished to point out to the young human, that knocking over drinks without apologizing wasn't just cool, it could be dangerous in certain contexts. At that point, Evazan took over and blew the whole thing way out of proportion, leading to a long and awkward trip between Ponda Baba and Evazan on the way to the medical droid station down the alleyway.

People v. (Huey) Newton- (California Court of Appeals, 1970)

Han Solo and Chewbacca were relaxing in Chalmun's Cantina on Tatooine, when Chewie stood up and left the table to grab another Algerine for him and Solo. The rodesian bounty hunter, Greedo, recognizing his chance, then sat down and confronted Solo regarding Jabba the Hutt's bounty on his head. In the middle of the conversation, Greedo felt threatened and attempted to pull a blaster on Solo, which lead to a physical struggle between the two. When Imperial Stormtroopers then rushed into the Cantina to break up the quarrel, Greedo managed to squeeze off a shot into Solo's abdomen. Solo then proceeded to draw his blaster and execute Greedo, and in a rampage of violence killed several other Stormtroopers and Cantina patrons, before running several miles and passing out in the street.

Waking up in a cell in the brig, Solo claimed that after Greedo shot him he could not remember anything that followed after. Expert testimony by a GH-7 medical droid suggested that indeed, after being shot Solo went into a state known as "Automatism"; under which, like a droid he had no conscious control over himself, merely recieving input and submitting output (in the form of repeated blaster fire). The medical droid suggested that such a state could be in this reflex shock condition for up to a half an hour.

This raised several issues for the Outer Rim Court on Tatooine, as one of the elements of being charged with a criminal act is the requirement of "mens rea", or the mental culpability (or intent to commit the act). If Solo was not actually conscious during this obscene flurry of violence, it would be philosophically repugnant to punish him for an act outside of his control. This concern was also to be balanced with the notion that Solo had (even in his "droid-like" state) managed to kill several innocent individuals. The case was eventually remanded by the court for a jury determination as to whether or not Solo's act was voluntary.