Scholarship@WashULaw

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1994

Publication Title

Indiana Law Journal

Abstract

Several centuries from now, when archaeologists have unearthed a copy of the Federal Reporter and turned it over to legal historians for study and analysis, our descendants will be puzzled to discover that a society in which judicial resources were such a scarce "commodity" expended so much of that "commodity" searching its state codes for "analogous" limitation periods. I doubt very much that, at least in this regard, our priorities will command much admiration.

Fixing the statute of limitation for a particular cause of action is a legislative function. Indeed, it is not a particularly difficult or complex legislative function. In most circumstances, it can be handled in a sentence. Yet, in a significant number of statutory schemes of nationwide application, Congress has failed to fulfill this basic responsibility and has left the courts to spend hundreds of hours—and thousands of dollars in government money—searching for a substitute solution. Meanwhile, justice is delayed, not only in the cases in which limitation issues arise but also in the many cases, often raising far more serious questions, which must wait while this tedious process takes place.

Keywords

Statute of Limitations, 28 U.S.C. § 1658, Judicial Resources, Legislative Function, Legal Reform, Limitation Periods, Congressional Responsibility, Legal Delays, Case Law, Legal Interpretation

Publication Citation

Kimberly Jade Norwood, 28 U.S.C. § 1658: A Limitation Period with Real Limitations, 69 Ind. L.J. 477 (1994)

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