Murray v. The Charming Betsy (applied as precedent, not author)
E879582
Murray v. The Charming Betsy is an early 19th-century U.S. Supreme Court case best known for establishing the “Charming Betsy” canon, which holds that U.S. laws should be interpreted, where fairly possible, not to conflict with international law.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Murray v. The Charming Betsy (applied as precedent, not author) canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10673828 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Murray v. The Charming Betsy (applied as precedent, not author) Context triple: [Samuel Nelson, notableCase, Murray v. The Charming Betsy (applied as precedent, not author)]
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A.
Murray v. Curlett
Murray v. Curlett was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that, alongside Abington School District v. Schempp, held mandatory Bible readings in public schools unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
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B.
Cooley v. Board of Wardens
Cooley v. Board of Wardens is an 1852 U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped define the scope of the Commerce Clause by allowing states to regulate certain local aspects of commerce, such as port pilotage, without violating federal authority.
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C.
Guerin v. The Queen
Guerin v. The Queen is a landmark 1984 Supreme Court of Canada decision that established the federal government’s fiduciary duty toward Indigenous peoples in its management of reserve lands.
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D.
Ogden v. Saunders
Ogden v. Saunders is an 1827 U.S. Supreme Court case, known for Justice Bushrod Washington’s opinion addressing the constitutionality of state bankruptcy laws under the Contract Clause.
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E.
Foss v Harbottle
Foss v Harbottle is an 1843 English company law case that established the rule that only a company itself, rather than individual shareholders, can sue for wrongs done to the company, subject to limited exceptions.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Murray v. The Charming Betsy (applied as precedent, not author) Target entity description: Murray v. The Charming Betsy is an early 19th-century U.S. Supreme Court case best known for establishing the “Charming Betsy” canon, which holds that U.S. laws should be interpreted, where fairly possible, not to conflict with international law.
-
A.
Murray v. Curlett
Murray v. Curlett was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that, alongside Abington School District v. Schempp, held mandatory Bible readings in public schools unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
-
B.
Cooley v. Board of Wardens
Cooley v. Board of Wardens is an 1852 U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped define the scope of the Commerce Clause by allowing states to regulate certain local aspects of commerce, such as port pilotage, without violating federal authority.
-
C.
Guerin v. The Queen
Guerin v. The Queen is a landmark 1984 Supreme Court of Canada decision that established the federal government’s fiduciary duty toward Indigenous peoples in its management of reserve lands.
-
D.
Ogden v. Saunders
Ogden v. Saunders is an 1827 U.S. Supreme Court case, known for Justice Bushrod Washington’s opinion addressing the constitutionality of state bankruptcy laws under the Contract Clause.
-
E.
Foss v Harbottle
Foss v Harbottle is an 1843 English company law case that established the rule that only a company itself, rather than individual shareholders, can sue for wrongs done to the company, subject to limited exceptions.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
judicial precedent ⓘ landmark case ⓘ |
| establishesPrinciple |
U.S. statutes should be construed, where fairly possible, not to conflict with international law
ⓘ
presumption against interpreting U.S. law to violate the law of nations ⓘ |
| hasAreaOfLaw |
admiralty law
ⓘ
foreign relations law of the United States ⓘ international law ⓘ statutory interpretation ⓘ |
| hasChiefJustice | John Marshall ⓘ |
| hasCitation | 6 U.S. (2 Cranch) 64 ⓘ |
| hasCountry |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| hasCourt | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| hasCranchCitation | 2 Cranch 64 ⓘ |
| hasDecisionYear | 1804 ⓘ |
| hasFullCaseName | Murray v. The Schooner Charming Betsy ⓘ |
| hasHolding | An act of Congress ought never to be construed to violate the law of nations if any other possible construction remains ⓘ |
| hasInfluenceOn |
U.S. foreign relations jurisprudence
ⓘ
doctrine of presumption against extraterritoriality ⓘ interpretive approaches to human rights treaties in U.S. courts ⓘ |
| hasInterpretiveCanonType | canon of avoidance of conflict with international law ⓘ |
| hasJurisdiction | federal law of the United States ⓘ |
| hasKeyPhrase |
“Charming Betsy canon”
ⓘ
“an act of Congress ought never to be construed to violate the law of nations if any other possible construction remains” ⓘ |
| hasLanguage | English ⓘ |
| hasLegalDoctrine | Charming Betsy canon ⓘ |
| hasLegalEffect |
creates presumption of conformity between U.S. law and international law
ⓘ
guides courts to avoid statutory interpretations that place the United States in violation of international obligations ⓘ |
| hasLegalStatus | binding precedent within the U.S. federal judiciary ⓘ |
| hasNamedFor | schooner Charming Betsy ⓘ |
| hasOpinionAuthor | John Marshall ⓘ |
| hasParty |
Murray
ⓘ
The Schooner Charming Betsy ⓘ
linked to:
schooner Charming Betsy
|
| hasRegionOfImpact |
United States federal courts
ⓘ
linked to:
U.S. federal courts
|
| hasRelatedConcept |
customary international law
ⓘ
law of nations ⓘ statutory construction canons ⓘ treaty interpretation ⓘ |
| hasReporterVolume | 6 U.S. ⓘ |
| hasShortName | The Charming Betsy ⓘ |
| hasSubjectMatter |
compatibility of U.S. statutes with the law of nations
ⓘ
interpretation of U.S. non‑intercourse legislation ⓘ |
| hasTimePeriod | early 19th century ⓘ |
| isAppliedIn |
cases involving conflict between U.S. statutes and customary international law
ⓘ
cases involving conflict between U.S. statutes and treaty obligations ⓘ |
| isCitedFor |
canon of construction favoring consistency with international law
ⓘ
principle of comity toward other nations in statutory interpretation ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Murray v. The Charming Betsy (applied as precedent, not author) Description of subject: Murray v. The Charming Betsy is an early 19th-century U.S. Supreme Court case best known for establishing the “Charming Betsy” canon, which holds that U.S. laws should be interpreted, where fairly possible, not to conflict with international law.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Justice Samuel Nelson