Are we there?

From wikipedia: The [Court of Chivalry] was last convened in 1954, for Manchester Corporation v Manchester Palace of Varieties Ltd [1955] 1 All ER 387. The theatre displayed the City of Manchester's (that is, the Manchester Corporation's) arms both inside and on its seal and this usage implied that it was linked with the City's Council. The City had requested that the theatre cease the usage and had met with refusal. The court ruled in favour of the City (the Corporation). This was the first time that the Court of Chivalry had sat for approximately two centuries, since 1732. The opening part of the judgement involved an analysis leading to the determination that the Court of Chivalry still existed.

There are two things I love about this sort of thing. One falls into the odd decision of a court: it's a little odd when a court has to decide if it has jurisdiction (though all courts have jurisdiction to consider whether they have jurisdiction, this seems a bit recursive to me). But it's very odd when a court has to decide whether or not it still exists. If it decides it doesn't exist, who made that decision.

I also love these odd little legal artifacts you find floating around, detritus from a legal system that has existed for over 1000 years. Some of these things don't exist anymore (fee tail), and some are pretty out there (Rule Against Perpetuities). For some reason, these things interest me, probably partly because of my interest in history and partly because of my interest in philosophy. Any of you readers out there have a favorite legal antique?