Cite as: 516 U. S. 124 (1995)
Ginsburg, J., concurring
and equity, and thereby to render reviewable bankruptcy case remand orders based on "law." In legal systems that never separated pleadings and procedure along law/equity lines, and not infrequently in our own long-merged system, "equitable" signals that which is reasonable, fair, or appropriate. Dictionary definitions of "equitable" notably include among appropriate meanings: "just and impartial," American Heritage Dictionary 622 (3d ed. 1992); also "dealing fairly and equally with all concerned," Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary 421 (1983). As Circuit Judge Easterbrook observed:
"[T]he distinction between law and equity was abolished long ago in federal cases. Nothing in the history of the bankruptcy code suggests that Congress wanted to resuscitate it. Courts must separate 'legal' from 'equitable' grounds in 1789 on command of the seventh amendment. This task has little but the sanction of history to recommend it and is possible only because law versus equity was an intelligible line in the eighteenth century. In 1978, when Congress enacted the predecessor to § 1452, there was no law-equity distinction. 'Equitable' in § 1452(b) makes more sense if it means 'appropriate.' " Hernandez v. Brakegate, Ltd., 942 F. 2d 1223, 1226 (CA7 1991).
Cf., e. g., Hilton Davis Chemical Co. v. Warner-Jenkinson Co., 62 F. 3d 1512, 1521 (CA Fed. 1995) ("The term 'equitable' can have many meanings. . . . [I]n doctrine of equivalents cases, this court's allusions to equity invoke equity in its broadest sense—equity as general fairness."); United States v. BCCI Holdings (Luxembourg), S. A., 46 F. 3d 1185, 1189, 1190 (CADC 1995) (rejecting the argument that Congress used the expression "legal right, title, or interest" in 18 U. S. C. § 1963(l)(6)(A) "to draw the ancient, but largely ignored, distinction between technically legal and techni-
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