The British Debt Case
E47936
The British Debt Case is a landmark 1796 U.S. Supreme Court decision that addressed the payment of pre-Revolutionary War debts owed to British creditors and helped establish the supremacy of federal treaties over conflicting state laws.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The British Debt Case canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T375557 — 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: The British Debt Case Context triple: [Ware v. Hylton, alsoKnownAs, The British Debt Case]
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A.
Trial of the Sixteen
The Trial of the Sixteen was a 1936 Soviet show trial in Moscow in which prominent Old Bolsheviks were accused of treason and summarily condemned, marking a key early stage of Stalin’s Great Purge.
-
B.
Trial of the Twenty-One
The Trial of the Twenty-One was a 1938 Soviet show trial in Moscow in which prominent Old Bolsheviks and party leaders were accused of treason and executed, marking one of the most infamous episodes of Stalin’s Great Purge.
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C.
Three Estates of Scotland
The Three Estates of Scotland were the pre-Union Scottish parliament’s representative bodies of clergy, nobility, and burgh commissioners that together formed the kingdom’s central legislative assembly.
-
D.
Trial of the Pyx
The Trial of the Pyx is a centuries-old ceremonial and legal procedure in the United Kingdom in which newly minted coins are rigorously tested for quality and accuracy to ensure they meet required standards.
-
E.
His Majesty’s Government
His Majesty’s Government is the central executive authority of the United Kingdom, responsible for implementing laws and running the country under the leadership of the Prime Minister.
- 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: The British Debt Case Target entity description: The British Debt Case is a landmark 1796 U.S. Supreme Court decision that addressed the payment of pre-Revolutionary War debts owed to British creditors and helped establish the supremacy of federal treaties over conflicting state laws.
-
A.
Trial of the Sixteen
The Trial of the Sixteen was a 1936 Soviet show trial in Moscow in which prominent Old Bolsheviks were accused of treason and summarily condemned, marking a key early stage of Stalin’s Great Purge.
-
B.
Trial of the Twenty-One
The Trial of the Twenty-One was a 1938 Soviet show trial in Moscow in which prominent Old Bolsheviks and party leaders were accused of treason and executed, marking one of the most infamous episodes of Stalin’s Great Purge.
-
C.
Three Estates of Scotland
The Three Estates of Scotland were the pre-Union Scottish parliament’s representative bodies of clergy, nobility, and burgh commissioners that together formed the kingdom’s central legislative assembly.
-
D.
Trial of the Pyx
The Trial of the Pyx is a centuries-old ceremonial and legal procedure in the United Kingdom in which newly minted coins are rigorously tested for quality and accuracy to ensure they meet required standards.
-
E.
His Majesty’s Government
His Majesty’s Government is the central executive authority of the United Kingdom, responsible for implementing laws and running the country under the leadership of the Prime Minister.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (30)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
U.S. Supreme Court case
ⓘ
landmark legal decision ⓘ |
| appliesTo | debts contracted before the American Revolution ⓘ |
| branchOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
contract law ⓘ international law ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| creditorNationality | British ⓘ |
| debtorNationality | American ⓘ |
| decisionYear | 1796 ⓘ |
| establishes |
binding nature of treaties as part of the supreme law of the land
ⓘ
federal supremacy in treaty enforcement ⓘ |
| hasJurisdiction |
Supreme Court of the United States
ⓘ
surface form:
United States Supreme Court
|
| historicalPeriod | early U.S. constitutional era ⓘ |
| impact |
clarified that treaties override conflicting state laws
ⓘ
strengthened federal authority over states in foreign affairs ⓘ |
| involves | conflict between state statutes and treaty obligations ⓘ |
| legalDoctrine | supremacy clause application to treaties ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
conflict between federal treaties and state laws
ⓘ
payment of debts to British creditors ⓘ pre-Revolutionary War debts ⓘ |
| legalPrinciple |
enforceability of treaty obligations in U.S. courts
ⓘ
supremacy of federal treaties over state laws ⓘ |
| partyType |
American debtors
ⓘ
British creditors ⓘ |
| relatedTo | American Revolutionary War ⓘ |
| relatedTreaty |
Treaty of Paris (1783)
ⓘ
surface form:
Treaty of Paris of 1783
|
| subjectMatter |
international obligations under a peace treaty
ⓘ
state interference with treaty-based rights ⓘ |
| timeFrameOfDebts | pre-Revolutionary War period ⓘ |
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: The British Debt Case Description of subject: The British Debt Case is a landmark 1796 U.S. Supreme Court decision that addressed the payment of pre-Revolutionary War debts owed to British creditors and helped establish the supremacy of federal treaties over conflicting state laws.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Ware v. Hylton