Law and Philosophy Commons^™

Jurisprudence On Parade, Hessel E. Yntema

Michigan Law Review

Jurisprudence is part of the pageant that makes history. This is a truism that, it may be added, obtains irrespective of the view held as to the significance of general legal theory. To some, the constructs of jurisprudence may seem but laggard symbols of more vital facts and trends. The degree of the lag exhibited by the more celebrated of such constructs may suggest to an anthropologically-minded observer, such as Thurman Arnold, that the apparent function of jurisprudence in the present social climate is neither to represent reality nor to control the administration of justice, but rather by the magic …

Corporate Personality, Henry Rottschaeffer

Michigan Law Review

A review of CORPORATE PERSONALITY By Frederick Hallis.

Law And The Modern Mind, Burke Shartel

Michigan Law Review

A review of LAW AND THE MODERN MIND By Jerome Frank.

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 …

Juristic Idealism And Legal Practice, Joseph H. Drake

Michigan Law Review

The relation of the "idea" of just law to the "principles" [Grundsaetze] of just law and the "model" [Vorbild] of just law is somewhat difficult to grasp and Stammler's application of the idea, through the intermediate principles and model, to the practice of just law, has given much trouble to the critics. A rule of law may be thought of as a particular conclusion, a principle as a general conclusion, while a standard or norm is a means of reaching conclusions. This is of course the old logical division of conceptions into particular, general and universal, …

Juristic Idealism And Legal Practice, Joseph H. Drake

Michigan Law Review

The leading exponent of juristic idealism in Germany is Rudolf Stammler, Professor in the University of Berlin. He is uncompromising in his idealistic theory. He even resents being called a pragmatic idealist, possibly lest the chameleon like connotation of this word might seem to detract in any way from the absolute character of his conception of the idea. He is to be thought of rather as the third of that great triumvirate of juristic idealists; namely, Socrates-Kant-Stammler. It is then rather a curious phenomenon that wl1en his juristic philosophy is transplanted to alien soil, it is the pragmatic element in …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A list of books received by Michigan Law Review

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). …

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 …

Book Reviews, Edwin C. Goddard, Evans Holbrook, Ralph W. Aigler, Edwin D. Dickinson

Michigan Law Review

Books in general, law books in particular, are like people. Most of them are ordinary, some useful, some not, but if they had not appeared they would not have been greatly missed, having appeared they will live their few years and at least seem to be forgotten. A few are so outstanding that they make a strong impress on their time and live on beyond the period of a life. If not great they have great influence and make notable contributions. Among the notable books of our time in the field of property law may be mentioned Jarman on Wills …

Copyright And Morals, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

The basis for national copyright legislation in this country is Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution: "The Congress shall have power * * * to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

German Legal Philosophy, John M. Zane

Michigan Law Review

Annexed as an appendix to the translation of Kohler's Philosophy of Law is an appreciation of the work by Adolf Lasson, 1 who complains that he himself once wrote a philosophy of law which has sunk into oblivion, probably for the reason, as he modestly suggests, that he knew so much of systematic philosophy that he had no time to acquire any "special scientific learning either in the law or any other special department of knowledge."2 This complaint is a confession, child-like and amusing in its vanity, which could be dismissed without comment, were it not something that is wholly …

New Law Of Nations, Joseph Kohler

Michigan Law Review

If the article upon the New Law of Nations had been written by an obscure man for a sensational periodical, it would not have been worthy of serious consideration. It appeared in September, 1915, however, in the ZEITSCHRIFT FUR V6LKERRECHT, generally reputed to be the leading periodical devoted to international law, published in the German language. Its author, Dr. JOsEF Ko.HLER, is generally conceded to be the most distinguished living German jurist. His PHILOSOPHY OF LAW was deemed worthy of translation into English and appeared as Volume 12 of the Modern Legal Philosophy Series.' Dean Roscog POUND has referred.to him …

Inquiry Concerning Justice, Floyd R. Mechem

Michigan Law Review

Justice, said Daniel Webster, "is the greatest interest of man on earth." Alexander Hamilton, in the Federalist, declared "Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It has ever been, and ever will be, pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit."

Nature Of Legal Rights And Duties, Joseph W. Bingham

Michigan Law Review

One cannot long talk on a legal topic without using the words right and duty or some synonyms. It is familiar hearsay that a purpose of law is to create, delimit, and protect rights and to define and enforce duties. Therefore it is of importance to inquire what is meant by "a right" and by "a duty" when we use these terms in legal discussion. The question is a linguistic one; but in the process of finding the proper answer, we shall have to analyze some of our common sorts of mental concepts and perhaps shall finish with a clear …

What Is The Law? Ii, Joseph W. Bingham

Michigan Law Review

I shall now discuss briefly the nature of the causal effects of precedents upon judicial decisions and the justifications for those effects. One frequently hears laymen scoffing at the respect which courts pay to precedents and sometimes displaying a lamentable ignorance both of the nature of the influence which precedents have on the law and of the reasons for the existence of that influence. The influence of past example on human action pervades all human conduct and endeavor at all times. That influence is fundamental. It occurs through instinctive as well as intelligent processes and sometimes runs to unreasonable extents. …

What Is The Law?, Joseph W. Bingham

Michigan Law Review

It is intended that this title shall demand an analysis of the field of study in which the lawyer or jurist works and a determination of its essential and contributing elements. The purpose of the article is to sketch briefly a partial answer which will be instructive and helpful to the student who faces the problem as I faced it some ten years ago. I do not expect that anything new will be found in these ideas. I imagine that all of them must have been expressed many times before. Some of them are common­place. None is esoteric. Probably the …

The Law Of Reason, Fredrick Sir Pollock

Michigan Law Review

If there is one virtue that our books of authority claim for the Common Law more positively than another, it is that of being reasonable. The law is even said to be the perfection of reason. Not that the meaning of that saying is exhausted by the construction which a layman would naturally put upon it. For, as Coke had to tell King James I., much to his displeasure, there is an artificial reason of the law. Certainty is among the first objects of systematic justice. General principles being once fixed, the only way to attain certainty is to work …