How can courts act in the pursuit of justice when a robber is also a victim?  Marjory Dingwall confessed to three counts of robbery and three counts of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence, but she claimed she committed them under duress, fearing the violence she had come to expect from her abusive boyfriend.

Federal courts have long avoided reading statutes as applicable on foreign soil, except when Congress clearly indicates as such, by using the canon of statutory interpretation known as the presumption against extraterritoriality. Some courts, however, have used a 1922 Supreme Court decision, United States v. Bowman, to justify applying § 1114 outside American borders.

Can 18 USC § 1114 criminalize killing or attempting to kill an officer or employee of the United States outside the territory of the United States?

When a case litigated in court goes horribly wrong, there’s a clear remedy: appeal. But, what happens when your case goes not through court, but arbitration, and the proceedings are grossly unfair? You cannot appeal: that would seriously undermine the purposes of arbitration, to provide a fast resolution of a case at a cheaper cost than litigation. There is only one possible escape hatch: federal law provides that, in a limited set of very unfair situations, you can ask a court to vacate or modify the arbitrator’s award.

But if you bring this petition in federal court, another obstacle lurks in the background: the federal court’s subject-matter jurisdiction to even consider a petition to vacate. A new circuit split has popped up on that question.

When does “or” mean “and”? When does “or” simply mean “or”? And whose job is it to decide—a Federal court or Congress?

Substantive or procedural? This age-old conceptual “split” lies at the heart of the Erie Doctrine, which we tackle here in our first post. The issue: when a state law imposes procedural requirements on litigants so as to advance a substantive policy goal, do those requirements apply in federal court? We have seen two circuit splits on this problem, so—befittingly—we have “split” our first post into two parts.