Marbury V. Madison Case Study

As an essential trial of judicial review doctrine, Marbury v. Madison influences deeply on American constitutional history as to worldwide. It is a pity that the research of this trial, is not in-depth or comprehensive in China. So this article will examine the social historical origin, the content and historical influence of it so as to help the readers with more understandings of this trial. Besides preface and conclusion, this article consists of three parts.The first part, "the social and legal background of Marbury v. Madison", mainly describes the self-governing social government structure and the transform of legal system in 18 century Colonial America. After the war of independence, the traditional concepts and new ones continuously conformitied in their conflicts and compromises. In order to maintain the hard-won peace life, people devoted to probe the best legal system for America. And the judicial review doctrine was the great achievement of J. Marshall and contemporaries in that period.The second part, "the origin and trial of Marbury v. Madison", at first analyses J. Marshall's personal experiences, provides some details to the relationship of J. Marshall and Marbury v. Madison. Then, this part examines the famous political crisis during 1801 and 1803, what was solved with Americans' unique political compromising wisdom and has been the era background of this trial. Finally, this part will describe and discuss the contents of the trial. As an important person in that political crisis, Marshall judged Marbury v. Madison perfectly, furthermore, he established judicial review doctrine with his eminent political wisdom. From then on, the status of the U.S. Supreme Court was much elevated, the American political structure changed greatly as so on.The third part, "the historical influence of Marbury v. Madison", discusses the early historical influence of the trial firstly. Some main issues will be involved in this part, for example, why such a significant trial did not arouse public controversy, how the early judicial review doctrine succeed the core soul of the trial while keeping the distance with politics, as well as how the U.S. supreme court and lower courts protected individual property rights by inheriting another core soul of this trial and applying judicial review doctrine. After that, this...