Digital Commons Network^™

An Appraisal Of English Procedure, Edson R. Sunderland

Michigan Law Review

On paper the program of the London meeting of the American Bar Association last year was not a crowded one. No busy morning sessions hurried the members away from their hotels; at noon there was a leisurely opportunity for comfortable luncheons; and the drowsy summer afternoon was far advanced before the real business of the day began. But the printed program only marked the high points of the meeting. All through the week, by day and by night, there was London to be seen, the Abbey, the Tower, the Thames, palaces, parks and galleries, and the thousand historic spots which …

Pseudo-Protection Of The Property In Rate Cases

Michigan Law Review

It is clear that in ascertaining the present value we are not limited to the consideration of the actual investment. If that has been reckless or improvident, losses may be sustained which the community does not underwrite. As the company may not be protected in its actual investment, if the value of its property be plainly less, so the making of a just return for the use of the property involves the recognition of its fair value if it be more than its cost. The property is held in private ownership, and it is that property, and not the original …

Wills--Admissibility Of Parole Evidence To Show Mistake Of Scrivner

Michigan Law Review

Perhaps very few legal questions have given rise to more controversy than that of the admissibility of parol evidence to show the intent of a testator. An interesting phase of the general question was presented to the supreme court of errors of Connecticut in the recent case of Stearns v. Stearns, (Conn. 1925) 130 Atl. 112. Parol evidence was offered to show that the testatrix intended to devise and bequeath all the residue and remainder of her estate to her husband and that instructions were so given to the scrivener but he failed to draft the will in accordance …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Sterilization Of Mental Defectives, Burke Shartel

Michigan Law Review

In 1923 the legislature of Michigan passed an act "to authorize the sterilization of mentally defective persons". This act has recently been sustained in its main provisions by the Michigan supreme court in a case brought to test its constitutionality. Probably the United States Supreme Court will also have an opportunity to pass upon the validity of this law, but the Michigan decision, although not final on the question whether the sterilization of defectives is violative of the "due process clause" of the Fourteenth Amendment, is nevertheless very significant. It is the first instance so far as the writer can …

The New Holdsworth, Arthur Lyon Cross

Michigan Law Review

In view of the fact that Pollock and Maitland do not go beyond the time of Edward I and Reeves no further than Elizabeth's reign, Professor Holdsworth, in publishing a revision and extension to the eighteenth century of his well known work, ventures to point out that it is "the first continuous history of English law that has ever been written". And so it is, to the point to which he has carried it thus far. One more volume at least is promised in the near future; while it is to be hoped that subsequent contributions may ultimately appear. "From …

Inheritance Taxatlon

Michigan Law Review

The recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Frick v. Pennsylvania, (June 1925) Adv. Ops. 122, 123, 124, 125, is of vital importance in the field of inheritance taxation. The facts as far as material to the present discussion are these: one Henry C. Frick, domiciled in Pennsylvania, died testate in 1919 leaving a large estate, consisting, among other things, of certain tangible personalty permanently located in New York and other tangible personalty located in Massachusetts and stock in various corporations chartered by states other than Pennsylvania. This property was all included in the clear …

Witnesses--When Interpreters May Be Used

Michigan Law Review

A novel situation in regard to the use of interpreters was presented in People v. Walker (Cal. App. 1924) 231 Pac. 572. The prosecution called a witness who was brought in in a crippled and weak condition. He was asked questions, but "the witness could give forth no sound, not even a whisper, by means of the organs of Speech." While the record was not clear whether there was any movement of his lips whatever, at least there was none which conveyed to any person but his wife the impression that he attempted to put forth articulate speech in response …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

The Next Task Of The Law School, James Parker Hall

Michigan Law Review

When, last December, I first saw these beautiful buildings, I could only exclaim: "It is a dream--a wonderful dream come true!" There was nothing original about this exclamation. You have all said or thought the same thing every time you have approached this quadrangle. In my mouth this trite but spontaneous utterance was but part of the res gestae of being conducted through the group by Dean Bates, the proud and intimate spirit of this architectural magnificence. And now, when I am privileged to return and to share in the dedication to the high service of man of this miracle …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Cooperation Between The Bar And The Public In Improving The Administration Of Justice, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

Professor Sunderland compares public participation in the legal systems of the United States and Great Britain. "There must be a partnership between the profession and the laity for improving the administration of justice. Law must become a matter of public concern, and not treated as a mere perquisite of a professional class."

Co-Operation Between The Judiciary And The Police, John B. Waite

Articles

"The problem in which I have been interested is the reason for the great disproportion between the number of arrests by the police and the number of convictions resulting...." Professor Waite expresses his opinion that judges occasionally thwart police in their lawful activities out of distrust or ignorance of police practices by capriciously interfering with criminal procedure.

Arbitration Under The Modern Statutes

Michigan Law Review

Of late years the way of the "fair and free trial in open court," to which every man is deemed to have an inalienable right, has become so long, devious, intricate and costly, that the law faces the danger of falling into general disrepute. The calendars of courts in most jurisdictions ·are crowded and filled for months and years in advance. the situation being most acute in the larger cities and commercial centers. the very places where delays are most undesirable. New York City serves as a horrible example-here an ordinary case generally takes three years to come to trial. …

Redemption From Foreclosure Sale--The Uniform Mortgage Act, Edgar Noble Durfee, Delmar W. Doddridge

Michigan Law Review

If it be objected that our proposal is wholly novel and that it is the function of the Uniform Act merely to codify existing law, changing it only in so far as is necessary to remove conflicting rules, we would answer that codification in a strict sense is impossible in a field which presents so many conflicting views as that before us. We also believe that the objection is less forceful when the existing law is wholly statutory and half our states have no such law. And we understand that the commissioners have more and more abandoned the strict ideal …

Search Of Automobile Without Warrant--When Reasonable

Michigan Law Review

The enforcement of the National Prohibition Act has been responsible for raising the search and seizure question to a new height of importance. By Section 26 of that act, any officer discovering any person in the transportation of intoxicating liquors is to seize all such liquors being transported contrary to law. Obviously to secure a search warrant is impossible in the very nature of things the automobile, adapted to speed, is gone long before a warrant could be secured. And the employment of the automobile in the transportation of liquor is carried to such an extent that search and seizure …

The Effect Of Martial Law Upon The Soldier's Liability To The Citizen

Michigan Law Review

The recent case of Bishop v. Vandercook, 228 Mich. 299, raises a group of problems of grave importance, seldom discussed in the courts. Can martial law ever exist under our constitutional form of government, so that a soldier becomes privileged, for the time being, to invade the interests of private citizens in a way which the ordinary police powers would not warrant? When may such extraordinary law and extraordinary privilege exist? Is a soldier ever justified in acting under orders given by his superior under supposed martial law when martial law for some reason is not in force?

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

The Reckoning Of Damages In Fluctuating Exchange, Joseph H. Drake

Michigan Law Review

Not the least serious of the evil effects of the Great War has been the resultant collapse in value of the currencies of foreign countries and the consequent dislocation of exchanges. The case of Sirie v. Godfrey, decided in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, presents clearly one of the legal problems arising out of this situation. Goods were bought by an American lady in Paris, in 1913 and 1914, at a cost of about 10,000 francs. These goods were delivered in due time but were not paid for. At the time the goods were …

Prohibition And The Doctrine Of The Weeks Case, Thomas E. Atkinson

Michigan Law Review

One of the most disputed present day questions is whether evidence obtained in violation of constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches and seizures should be admissible. The case of Weeks v. United States is perhaps the leading authority upon the proposition that evidence procured by officers through unreasonable search is not admissible. The holding may be justified upon how theories, vis., (1) that the admission of the evidence substantially violates the rule against self-incrimination in the Fifth Amendment, (2) that the exclusion of the evidence is the only practical means of enforcing the guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Recent Recognition Cases, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

"The prolonged interval during which the United States declined to recognize the government functioning in Mexico, and the still more protracted period during which recognition has been withheld from the de facto government in Russia, have produced some unusually interesting problems with respect to the appropriate judicial attitude toward an unrecognized de facto foreign government."

The Meaning Of Nationality In The Recent Immigration Acts, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

Professor Dickinson's commentary on the quotas involved in the Immigration Act of 1921 and of 1924. "Until the more recent enactment the meaning of nationality was obscured in a curious ambiguity ... the Act of 1921 made nationality the basis of the quote plan....

"Whether nationality was used in the scientific sense, however, meaning the character created by allegiance to a recognized nation or state, or whether its significance was arbitrary, referring only to such groupings as might be arranged by census makers or other such administrative officials, remained to be determined by judicial construction."

Professor Dickinson then narrates how …

The Income Tax Liability Of Dividends In Liquidation, Roswell F. Magill

Michigan Law Review

The development of a scheme at once equitable and constitutional for the taxation of corporate distributions has been one of the more difficult problems confronting Congress and the courts since the adoption of the income tax amendment. Doubtless the chief reason for this difficulty has been the fact that the income tax liability of a shareholder upon such a distribution "has not been determinable merely by ascertaining whether the amounts received are the variety of receipts commonly regarded by their recipients as income,- in a word, by determining whether they constitute a "gain" to the shareholder. Rather, it is a …

The Judicial Review Of Executive Acts, Albert Levitt

Michigan Law Review

The relation of the judiciary to the executive branch of the Government is a perplexing one. According to the Constitution, the government of the United States is threefold in character, legislative, executive and judicial. Each of these is supposed to be independent of the others. One cannot usurp the function of any one of the others. At the same time, this is a "Government of laws and not of men." It is equally true that this is a government of laws and not of political subdivisions or of the subdivisions of governmental mechanisms. Legislators, executives and judiciary must abide by …

War Crimes, Elbridge Colby

Michigan Law Review

Grant that as far as military jurisdictions are concerned, the superior order justifies the act of the subordinate. Yet is such a judgment valid outside of military circles? Grant that public armed troops and soldiers have generally been held exempt when acting under the orders of their sovereign, and are responsible only to their own government. Is this an absolute protection? Is it true that, by the authority vested in him, "the commanding general determines what measures are necessary unless restrained by the orders of his government, which alone is his superior." Are there no qualifications to the idea that …

Conflict Of Laws Rules As Constitutional Limitations

Michigan Law Review

With the constant growth of the United States as a commercial nation, it has been inevitable that state lines should figure in business transactions to an ever diminishing extent. Business relations, keeping pace with the rapid development of modem means of transportation, have increasingly assumed an interstate aspect. With this extension of commercial dealings, the question of the legal rights of the parties so engaged has frequently arisen. Diversity of local rules of law has led to much litigation and disagreement. Differences in local rules might be overcome through the services of competent commercial lawyers, and contracts might then be …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.