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19 Rec. Ass'n B. City N.Y. 64 (1964)
In Praise of Erie - and of the New Federal Common Law

handle is hein.barjournals/rabbny0019 and id is 104 raw text is: In Praise of Erie-and of the New Federal Common Law By HENRY J. FRIENDLY Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit THE TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL BENJAMIN N. CARDOZO LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION OF THE BAR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK ON JANUARY 16, 1964 It is in no perfunctory fashion that I own my pleasure at the opportunity of delivering this lecture before our Association. I say our advisedly, for my recollections of this building go back to the summer of 1927 when I was working, under the guidance of Professor Frankfurter as he then was, on a paper not unrelated to my subject tonight,' and later for one of the most beloved men ever to practice at our bar, Emory R. Buckner, at the time United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. It was dur- ing that summer also that I had the good fortune to be presented, in his chambers next door, to that great judge and saintly man whom these lectures honor. I shall spare you any further recital of memories of this House-save only a mention of having been privileged to serve on the Executive Committee of this Associa- tion during the presidency of Harrison Tweed, an enduring ex- ample of how one man can remould an institution. When Judge Charles E. Clark, whose recent untimely death has been such a loss not only to his court but to the entire profes- sion, took the Erie case2 as the topic for his Cardozo lecture some years ago, he noted that it was not the subject itself, but its de- velopment in formal lecture, which requires some fortitude. 8 In 1964, both may be thought to require not simply fortitude but apology. If a considerable pond of ink about Erie had already ac- cumulated in 1945, this has now become a rather large lake. You may reasonably ask whether anything more can usefully be said. Yet the lapse of a quarter century-Erie celebrated its