May 16, 2019 Thursday
Bedtime Story
United States v. Cinque, et al (1839)
“committed on the coasts of this island,
and under the flag of this nation.”
The Spanish government besides demanding
the return of their claimed property also wanted to indict and try the slaves
with the more serious charges of mutiny aboard a shipping vessel on
international waters and murders on La Amistad.
The Spanish government invoked several
treaties and clauses to convince the Americans that under international law and
various treaties signed between them they ought to hand over both the vessel
along with its contents to the Spanish government.
The first lawsuit regarding this matter was
filed in the circuit court in Hartford which is the capital city of Connecticut
and is today also named as the “insurance capital of the world” because many
insurance companies of the world have their headquarters set up there.
Hartford is among the oldest cities in the
United States and today it has the ignoble distinction of being one of the
poorest in the nation with 3 out of every 10 families living below poverty
threshold.
The case in the Hartford circuit court was
filed in September 1839 where its docket title was United States v. Cinque, et
al.
This first case was not about the property
right of the vessel and its contents but rather on the charge made against the
slaves for mutiny and murder with Cinque becoming the legal and figurative
representative of all the slaves.
What do you think the court announced as
its verdict?
Surprisingly the court agreed with the view
that the Spaniards were making and in its ruling said that the court lacked
jurisdiction over this matter as the alleged events took place on a Spanish
ship in Spanish waters (waters around Cuba).
When such a thing happens in the lower
court or anything happens in the lower court and any party to the lawsuit is
not satisfied with the order they have the right to file an appeal in the
higher court challenging the order.
Judiciary in the Western world is generally
built on this line with a three-tier system that is followed in most nations wherein
the names of the courts in the three-tiers may vary but the idea is always the
same.
It is assumed that judges are also humans
capable of making errors and wrongly interpreting both the facts and the law.
It has been not an uncommon event that judgments
of lower courts are overturned in higher courts when the facts and arguments
have remained unchanged and unaltered.
The highest court of the land within the
hierarchy of courts is almost always the Supreme Court (but not everywhere and
not always) and its orders are final and not subject to further review.
Some countries even have multiple “supreme
courts”.
The judges of the Supreme Court are truly
Lords in almost every sense having complete immunity from any sort of persecution
and even impeaching them is next to impossible.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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