Jurisprudence Commons^™

The Varying Meaning And Legal Effect Of The Word "Void", Abraham J. Levin

Michigan Law Review

To interpret properly what has been said or written necessitates our going beyond the dictionary into the sphere of action and reality. In its narrowest sense the, meaning of a word is the single effect which is given to it in the specific case. Insofar as nature repeats itself are we able to build up concepts and symbols which function in substantially the same way in different cases. But the mind must always be ready to discard an accepted definition of a word symbol for the particular legal effect which the circumstances demand. The same word or symbol with the …

The Meaning Of "Heirs" In Willsa Suggestion In Legal Method, Lewis M. Simes, Lorentz B. Knouff, George E. Leonard Jr.:

Michigan Law Review

A major task of the lawyer is the prediction of judicial action. No less than a quarter of a century ago Justice Holmes referred to the law as a body of "systematized prediction." Today legal scholars are not content to base their predictions solely upon the body of rules announced in judicial opinions. By means of elaborate fact studies they have sought to ascertain how rules of law actually function in society. Not only have these studies dealt with problems of procedure and the administration of courts, they have also invaded the fields of commercial and property law. Among such …

Constitutional Law-Stare Decisis

Michigan Law Review

The defendant corporation, a lessee of school lands from the state of Oklahoma, protested the right of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to tax its net income. Held, under the rule of Gillespie v. Oklahoma, the income cannot be taxed without interfering with a state instrumentality. Four dissenting justices-Stone, Brandeis, Roberts, and Cardozo--admitted the applicability but denied the wisdom of the Gillespie case and the inability of the court to overrule itself, in Burnet v. Coronado Oil and Gas Co.

The Case Method Of Studying Law, Henry Rottschaefer

Michigan Law Review

A review of THE CASE METHOD OF STUDYING LAW By Jacob Henry Landman.

The Paradoxes Of Legal Science: A Review, Rousseau A. Burch

Michigan Law Review

This book by the distinguished Chief Judge of the New York court of appeals deals with difficulties of the judicial process when its function is creative; that is, when a judge makes law for novel situations.

The title of the book assumes there is a science of law, and the introduction takes analogues of physical science for a starting point. In physics there are rest and motion, static and dynamic ; in social affairs there are stability and changes, conservation and progress. In making decisions, the judge may be concerned with the yea of action in alteration, and the nay …

Ministerial And Discretionary Official Acts, Edwin W. Patterson

Michigan Law Review

Two recent cases, one in Michigan and one in Iowa, bring up again the insistent question of judicial control over administrative action and the oft-repeated distinction between "ministerial" and "discretionary" official acts.

Book Reviews, Edwin W. Patterson, Edson R. Sunderland, C E. Griffin

Michigan Law Review

The title of this brilliant little volume might, more accurately, have been, "The Spirits of the Common Law," for it depicts the common law as the battleground of many conflicting spirits, from which a few relatively permanent ideas and ideals have emerged triumphant. As a whole, the book is a pluralistic-idealistic interpretation of legal history. Idealistic, because Dean Pound finds that the fundamentals of the 'common law have been shaped by ideas and ideals rather than by economic determinism or class struggle; he definitely rejects a purely economic interpretation of legal history, although he demands a sociological one (pp. io-ii). …

Social And Economic Interpretation Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Robert Eugene Cushman

Michigan Law Review

For those who love precision and definiteness the question of the application of the Fourteenth Amendment to social and economic problems remains an irritating enigma. The judicial construction of due process of law and the equal protection of the law has from the first discouraged systematic analysis and defied synthesis. More than one writer has emerged from the study of the problem with a neat and compact set of fundamental principles, only to have the Supreme Court discourteously ignore them in its next case. But paradoxical as it may seem, those who long for a wise and forward-looking solution of …

Book Reviews, Nathan Isaacs, Horace Lafayette Wilgus, Arthur H. Basye, Leonard D. White, Victor H. Lane, Edwin D. Dickinson

Michigan Law Review

What does a judge do when he decides a case? It would be interesting to collect the answers ranging from those furnished by primitive systems of law in which the judge was supposed to consult the gods to the ultra-modern, rather profane system described to me recently by a retrospective judge: "I make up my mind which way the case ought to be decided, and then I see if I can't get some legal ground to make it stick." Perhaps the widespread impression is the curiously erroneous one lampooned by Gnaeus Flavius (Kantorowitz). The judge is supposed to sit at …

Net Income And Judicial Economics, Henry Rottschaefer

Michigan Law Review

A legal system does not function in a vacuum of abstractions. It is part of a general institutional framework of an organized society. Its content is determined by concrete individual and social needs and activities. Hence modern jurisprudence conceives of law as a means for securing interests. The appraisal of its rules and principles requires an evaluation of the significant elements of the situation to which they apply. A narrow, complacent formalism is the penalty of failure in this regard. No one would deny the emphasis modern society places upor its commercial and industrial interests, nor the many points of …

Book Reviews, Joseph H. Drake

Michigan Law Review

The appearance in permanent form of these five lectures, which were first published in the Fortnightly Review in 1878 and i879, will be welcomed by all interested in the history of jurisprudence, since they put forth in most attractive form several of the basic principles of the subject as they were understood by learned English jurists forty years ago. They are reissued in practically unchanged form, with annotations by Professor Lefroy, whose untimely death apparently occurred before the volume was printed, though there is no notice of that sad event in the book itself.

Liability Of A Carrier Under A Bill Of Lading When The Goods Have Not Been Received By The Carrier, H S. Ross

Michigan Law Review

The coming into force on January I, 1917 in the United States of the FXDMAL BILL Or LADING AcT1 has given new interest to a question which was at one time much debated, namely: should a carrier whose shipmaster or agent has signed a bill of lading be liable to an innocent holder for value of such bill of lading if the carrier can show that the goods were never shipped?

Equity In Rem, Edgar N. Durfee

Michigan Law Review

Perhaps the most important legal publication of the past year is a monograph, by Charles Andrews Huston, which is published as the first volume of Harvard Studies in jurisprudence. It is inscribed as a dissertation submitted to the faculty of Harvard Law School in compliance with the terms of the Research Scholarship, and is dedicated to Roscoe Pound, to whom, the author tells us in his preface, he is indebted for the suggestion of the field of investigation, for constant inspiration, and for concrete suggestion and criticism.

Note And Comment, Joseph H. Drake, Hollis Harshman, Marcy K. Brown, Leslie C. Mcclelland

Michigan Law Review

The Law School opens with an attendance of 500, the decrease from last year's numbers (on account of the increased requirements for admission) being less than was anticipated.

English Judicature Act Of 1873, Willis B. Perkins

Michigan Law Review

It seems to be the general impression that reform in judicial procedure is a new and radical thing in the history of jurisprudence. This is far from the fact. It is as old as jurisprudence itself. From Solon to Justinian, from Justinian to the Magna Charta, from the Magna Charta to Bentham, from Bentham to Field, and in every civilized country, radical changes have taken place from time to time, touching both procedure and substantive law. Court systems have been codified, systematized and rearranged to meet advancing and changing social and industrial conditions. From the religious ceremonies, constituting the methods …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Appeal and Error--Meaning of "Person Aggrieved"; Bankruptcy--dower Rights of Bankrupt's Wife; Bankruptcy--Mechanic's Lien--Set Off; Bills and Notes--Usury--when note is Void as to Both Principal and Interest; Boundaries--Meander Line--Riparian Rights; Citizenship--Marriage of Alien Woman to a Citizen--Naturalization; Constitutional law--Constitutionality of Office of Supreme Judge--Construction of State Constitution; Constitutional Law--Full Faith and Credit--Chancery Power to Affect Foreign Property; Constitutional Law--Police Power--License and Registration of Automobiles; Contracts--Restraint of Trade--Limitation as to Time; Damages--Breach of Warranty of Title--Attorney's Fees and Costs; Deeds--Support and Maintenance as Consideration--Condition Subsequent; Evidence--Crimes Affecting Credibility of Witnesses; Evidence--Letters Between Husband and Wife--Not Privileged in Hands of Third Parties; Husband …

Roman Law And Mohammedan Jurisprudence, Part 3, Theodore P. Ion

Michigan Law Review

After having, in a summary manner, reviewed the historical connection existing between the Roman and Mohammedan laws, and examined the social condition of their respective people, we now come to our last theme, namely, the comparison of their laws proper, which will show their similarity in more than one point. This examination-which will be preceded by an explanation of jurisprudence in both systems and an attempt to show the likeness of their respective jurisconsults-will be limited to certain subjects of personal law and contracts, and concluded with a few observations on judicial organization.

Roman Law And Mohammedan Jurisprudence, Part 2, Theodore P. Ion

Michigan Law Review

In examining the early life of the Romans and comparing it with the social condition of the people of the Arabian peninsula in the pre-Islamic times, who are rightly considered the best type of the race, amongst those who embraced the faith of Mohammed, we are immediately struck with the great similarity that existed between the Roman gens; or the Greek ϒένος; and the Arabian Akila, though it cannot thereby be concluded that this likeness necessarily denotes a descent from the same stock. A distinguished French orientalist, in observing this striking similarity, ventured to conjecture that both …

Note And Comment, Harry B. Hutchins, Frank B. Fox, Frank P. Helsell, Burns A. Henry, Clyde Dewitt

Michigan Law Review

Liability of Carriers for Injuries Arising from Failure to Have Waiting Rooms Properly Heated; Special Assessments and Railroad Rights of Way; State and Federal Regulation Rates; Duty Toward Trespassing Children Where a Dangerous Article is Left in the Street; Collateral Attack on Injunctional Orders;

Roman Law And Mohammedan Jurisprudence (Part 1), Theodore P. Ion

Michigan Law Review

A comparison of the Roman law with Mohammedan jurisprudence, is a task not easy to accomplish, nor can an essay on that theme be made comprehensive enough to embrace all the ramifications of both legal systems. The object, therefore, of the present article, is to make only a cursory comparison of them; and to demonstrate their similarity in more than one point, showing the close analogy existing between them, and the influence that the laws of Rome exercised in the development of the Islamic legislation. As in the early days of Rome, law and religion had a close connection with …

Doctrine Of Stare Decisis, Edward B. Whitney

Michigan Law Review

I am requested to present a paper whose theme is suggested by the Present Problems of Private Law, as distinguished from law that has a constitutional or international aspect. I doubt whether there is any other section of the Congress whose themes are so difficult to select. We cover, indeed, those branches that mainly concern the ordinary, plain, steady-going, stay-at-home, law-abiding citizen,-that multitude of questions among which most legal practitioners everywhere are wearing out their lives; working every day and all day upon Present Problems of Private Law. Each of those problems interests the parties to the particular litigation or …

Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Constitutional Law--Compelling one to be a Witness Against Himself--Comparing Defendant's Shoe with Footprints; Rights in Inventions as Between Employer and Employee; Constitutional Law--Power of Legislature to Prescribe Rules of Evidence--Making Conveyance by Person Indebted Prima Facie Evidence of Intent to Defraud Creditors; Decorum of Attorney in Argument--Propriety of Appeals to the Pathetic or Sentimental; Liability of United States for Injury from Elevator in its Public Buildings--Implied Contract to Operate Safely--Case "Sounding in Tort"; Statutes Regulating the Practice of Medicine--Osteopathy; Precedents

Note & Comment, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Announcement; Note and Comment: The Right of a De Jure Officer to Recover Salary or Fees Paid to a De Facto Officer; Exemplary Damages Where Acutal Damages Merely Nominal; Seduction--Fiction of Service; Negligence--Druggist Selling Proprietary Medicine Without Knowing Contents; Physician--Duty to Respond to Call; Wills--Contract to Make--Fraud in Obtaining Charity--Relief in Equity; Sale--Bank Cashing Draft Drawn Against consignment of Goods as Purchaser--Liability Upon Express or Implied Warranty of Title or Quality; Voters--Right to Vote for Candidate whose Name is not on the Official Ballot; Constitutional Law--Fourteenth Amendment--Due Process--Equal Protection; Statute of Limitations--Failure to Leave Subjacent Support in Mining--When Statute begins …

Recent Decisions

Michigan Law Review

Agency--Ratification--Knowledge Necessary; Agency--Undisclosed Principal--Defence Against Agent; Bailments--Action by Bailee against Third Person; Bankruptcy--Homestead Exemption--State Law not Enforced; Bankruptcy--Homestead Exemption; Bills and Notes--Cashier's Check--Indorsed for Illegal Consideration; Carriers--Street Railway--Track Used by Another Company; Chattel Mortgage--Sufficiency of Description; Conflict of Laws--Statute of Frauds--Statute Affecting Remedy--Representations as to Another's Credit; Constitutional Law--14th Amendment--Class Legislation--License Law; Evidence--Physical Examination of Plaintiff in Personal Injury Suit; Insurance--Construction of Terms of Indemnity Policy; Insurance--Agreement to Issue New Policy--Effect of Failure to Surender Old Policy and Make Demand Within Time Stipulated; Landlord and Tenant--Covenant for Re-Entry--Re-Entry by Ejectment Only--Summary Proceedings; Landlord and Tenant--Covenant Not to Assign--Runs with the …