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Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Irresistible Impulse And Criminal Liability, John Barker Waite

Michigan Law Review

Do you believe in free-will, or mechanistic determinism, or fore-ordination, or fatalism? What do you mean by 'irresistible impulse'? What is the purpose of this prosecution against which you advocate, or deny, irresistible impulse as a defense; and just what do you mean by 'defense'? If, instead of one question, "is irresistible impulse a defense", we should ask these other questions of counsel, judge and medical expert, how often would their answers be in accord? Yet the one question can never be intelligently discussed in the absence of certainty and agreement as to the other premises. There are certain combinations …

The Effect Of An Offeror's Death Upon His Outstanding Offer, James Lewis Parks

Michigan Law Review

If A makes an offer to contract with B and dies before B accepts, it has generally been said that the offer is at an end, and that no contract can result, even though later B gives an acceptance without knowing of A's intervening death. To support this rule, it has been stated that a contract can not exist unless the minds of the parties have met, and as the offeror's mind has passed on with his decease, there can be no subsequent mutual assent. It has been convincingly shown that the reasoning of such a decision is unfortunate and …

War Crimes, Elbridge Colby

Michigan Law Review

It is not necessary to enumerate exactly what may now be considered war crimes or violations of the laws of war. The list will change from time to time, by the addition of new offences and the omission of those now so considered. Most of the Hague Conventions and rules and regulations are sufficiently well furnished with the signatures of world wide plenipotentiaries and adequately ratified to insure of their being accepted as international law on the points covered. There are only a few exceptions. In general the precepts are valid. Indeed, most modern writers on international law, when they …

Elections-Improper Marking Of Ballots

Michigan Law Review

The Australian ballot acts which have generally been adopted in this country were intended to bring about the twofold result of secrecy in voting and facility in the exercise of the franchise, and perhaps the most important provisions, having this object in view, are those regulating the marking of ballot papers by the voters. Unfortunately, however, the decisions on the question of what constitutes a valid voting mark are irreconcilably at variance. The conflict between decisions in different states might be explained by the fact that dissimilar statutes were being construed; but too often the courts have overruled their own …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A list of books received by Michigan Law Review

A Modern Instance Of Zenothemis V. Demon, John M. Zane

Michigan Law Review

That a specific rule in Greek law should be of value to the decision of a legal question arising among us would seem at first blush improbable. Both the historical and analytical jurists have insisted so strongly upon the causes which tend to make any system of positive law something peculiar in itself that they have obscured the fact that the rules of substantive law are quite likely to be the same for like circumstances among nations which have reached a comparatively high level of civilization. The now dominant school of juristic thought, which teaches what its foremost exponent has …

Legislation And Judicial Decision, Rudolf Stammler

Michigan Law Review

The discussions of the theme indicated by the title usually start from Montesquieu's theory of the three powers. This famous doctrine is developed in his work "De 1' esprit des lois" (1748) Bk. II, Ch. 6. This chapter is entitled "Of the English Constitution". It discusses however all states in general. In every state there are three sorts of powers, the legislative authority, the executive authority in matters dependent upon the law of nations, and the executive authority in everything dependent upon civil law. The last Montesquieu calls the judicial power, while the one mentioned in the second place is …

Constitutional Law-Restricting Liberty Without Due Process Of Law-Extorted Confessions

Michigan Law Review

Of recent years the administration of criminal justice has increased many-fold, owing to the constantly increasing size of our great cities and the period of growing social unrest in which we find ourselves. Public opinion has demanded a more effective mode of dealing with those who break the law with seeming impunity. In view of this attitude it is only natural that in a particularly baffling crime the police should seek to obtain some clue of the criminals by grilling suspects. This has resulted in many cases in acts which to say the least are over-zealous. In a recent case …

Crimes-Arrest-Reasonable Cause To Believe

Michigan Law Review

The admission of evidence was objected to, in a recent case, on the ground that it had been illegally secured. Officers had arrested the defendant without a warrant, on a charge of illegally transporting liquor. He was in fact guilty of the offense for which arrested, but contended that the evidence secured by the arrest could not be used. The circuit court of appeals phrased the issue thus : ''Was there probable cause for the officers to believe (that the felony was being committed), or were the facts sufficient to give rise merely to a suspicion thereof? If the former, …

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.

Review Of Criminology, By E. H. Sutherland, John B. Waite

Reviews

Professor Waite muses that "It seems rather unfair for a lawyer to review a textbook on criminology, especially as the author himself says, and quite truly, 'Little attention has been paid by law schools, lawyers, or judges to the improvement of the criminal law....'"

Happily: "...[T]he reviewer finds nothing but good to say of the book" (once he gets past how thin the paper is) and gives the reader a generous listing of chapters in the first paragraph.

Is The Crime Of Piracy Obsolete?, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

"A few years ago it might have been surmised that in America at least a good deal of the old code in respect to piracy had passed from the law in reserve into the law in history. The important cases were nearly all one hundred years old or more....

There have been recent events, however, which challenge the assumption that the law of piracy is chiefly of historical significance. The country had hardly entered upon the new period of national prohibition when the rum ships descended upon its coasts... There sprang up, in consequence, to prey upon the rum ships, …

The Rights Of The Landlord Upon Abandonment Of The Premises By The Tenant, Charles T. Mccormick

Michigan Law Review

The situation which presents itself to the landowner when the tenant defaults in his rent and withdraws from the premises, if the condition has not been foreseen and adequately provided for in the lease contract, may give rise to some perplexities. In the absence of a contract or a statute entitling him to do so, the landlord has no power to terminate the lease for non-payment of rent ; frequently, however, there is a possibility that the defaulting tenant may be financially able to respond for the rent or for such loss as the landlord may sustain for the remainder …

Conclusiveness Of The Federal Trade Commission's Findings As To Facts, Gregory Hankin

Michigan Law Review

The Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Act provide that the Commission's findings as to facts, if supported by testimony, shall be conclusive. Now that the Commission has functioned for almost ten years and a considerable number of its findings have been reviewed by the courts, it is interesting to examine the effect of this statutory provision. In other words, are the findings of the Federal Trade Commission as to facts, if supported by testimony, actually conclusive on the courts when appeal is taken to the Circuit Court of Appeals? This we shall discuss apart from the question--"What, as …

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.

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Rights Of Action Under Death And Survival Statutes, Bowen E. Schumacher

Michigan Law Review

Upon the injury of a person by the wrongful act of another and his death subsequent to and as a result of the injury, it would seem at a glance that there has been two wrongs done. First, there is the wrong to the injured person, giving rise to an action of tort against the wrongdoer, and secondly the injury to the relatives who, by the death, are deprived of support or financial contribution from the decedent. At common law the right of action accruing to the person before his death, i. e. the action for the tort, abated at …

The Juridical Nature Of The State, Sir Paul Vinogradoff

Michigan Law Review

Of all varieties of social co-operation, one dominates the others. It is the State, and a fundamental problem in every system of law consists in settling the legal relations between the State and its members- both the individuals and the juridical persons.

Legal Standards And Ideals, Sir Paul Vinogradoff

Michigan Law Review

Provisions for the settling of conflicts constitute the greater part of any legal system. These conflicts are not entirely governed by self interest and the idea of ethical duty does not disappear from them: it asserts itself in the shape of the balance to be established ·by the court: while every litigant presses for the satisfaction of his own claims society is called upon to adjudicate fairly between the parties: the moral notion of justice appears as the impartial attribution of what everyone in society ought to have by right. We make distinctions between men in accordance with their greater …

Tort Obligations And The Conflict Of Laws, Herbert F. Goodrich

Articles

"This article is an extract from a textbook on 'The Conflict of Laws,' by Professor Goodrich, now in course of preparation, and is here published by permission of the West Publishing Company."--Footnote

Liability In Tort Of Infants And Insane Persons, Francis H. Bohlen

Michigan Law Review

It is universally held that mere infancy or insanity does not preclude liability for the impairment of another's bodily condition or the physical condition of another's property caused by conduct which, if that of an adult or mentally normal person, would be a wrong of aggression or negligence.

But there is a conflict of authority and a wide divergence of opinion among text writers as to the liability of persons who, because of extreme youth or mental deficiency, are incapable of forming a culpable intention, or whose incapacity to realize the probable consequences of their conduct makes it unjust to …

Resistance To Illegal Arrest

Michigan Law Review

Precisely how far an individual may go in resisting an illegal arrest either by an officer or a private citizen, is a question which is of vital importance to the citizen and police officials and one which the courts have not definitely settled. Personal liberty is so esteemed that under certain circumstances one should have the right to resist, to some extent at least, any unlawful interference therewith. But as Beccaria says in his CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS, "It is a false idea of utility which thinks more of the inconvenience of individuals than of the general inconvenience". Translation by James …

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.

Fishing Expeditions By Commissions, John Leland Mechem

Michigan Law Review

Can Congress, under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, delegate visitorial powers over private corporations engaged in interstate commerce, to the extent of granting unlimited and unrestricted examination and inspection of private papers and effects, with the right to copy them?

Recognition Of New Types Of Negotiable Instruments, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

“The expression ‘negotiable instrument’ is one of variable meaning, and what is meant thereby often can be determined only by the context… Primarily ‘negotiable’ indicates transferability with a certain facility…..

“It may be not without interest to consider how instruments gain the negotiable quality and to trace, sketchily perhaps, the process of recognition.”

Contracts With The United States, Grover C. Grismore

Michigan Law Review

It has been settled since a comparatively early day in the history of our government that "the United States being a body politic, may, within the sphere of the constitutional powers confided to it, and through the instrumentality of the proper department to which those powers are confided, enter into contracts not prohibited by law, and appropriate to the just exercise of those powers." While this proposition became established without much of a struggle, it has not been so freely admitted that such contracts are to be given the same construction and effect as the contracts of individuals. In Smoot's …