constructions thereof adopted by state courts, and rights and titles to things having a permanent locality, such as to real estate and other matters immovable and intraterritorial in their nature and character. The "common" law -- which is not local -- includes the rights and titles created in contracts or other instruments of a commercial nature, which are to be sought in general principles of commercial jurisprudence. In Section 34 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, "the laws of the several states" referred to state laws that were strictly local and so not to a state's "common" law. Thus, it did not bind federal courts to state commercial jurisprudence. The Federal jurisdiction is free to interpret the general common law. The Supreme Court, therefore, sustained the determination of the lower federal court that under the general common law, a pre-existing debt constitutes a valuable consideration for a negotiable instrument. See also Erie Doctrine List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 41 References External links United States Constitution Article Three case law United States Supreme Court cases 1842 in United States case law Federal common law case law Overruled United States Supreme Court decisions Negotiable instrument law United States Supreme Court cases of the Taney Court Conflict of laws case law Diversity jurisdiction case law United States Erie Doctrine