A Reader's Guide to Pre-Modern Procedure

In this short article, David Noll explains procedural terms with which students often are unfamiliar. These terms predate the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which most Civil Procedure classes seem to pass over.

These terms, like “demurrer” and “nonsuit,” may pop up not only in old court cases that students may study, but also in state court procedural rules. I remember a lawyer asking to withdraw from a case, and the judge saying, “Oh, you want to “disappear”—meaning to withdraw his appearance. Here is the article.

(ljs)