Tectonic plates is the answer
A permanent peace be ever-lasting and one built "upon quicksand" will eventually sink into the sand or as realistically be gone (if this is wrong i apologize)
The answer is d. cases involving the banking system. The US Supreme Court often handles cases which are on a national level because it is at par with the national government. This includes foreign and state issues. Cases on banking systems can be handled by lower level courts because they are more or less local.