Digital Commons Network^™

The Collection Of Criminal Statistics In The United States, Raymond Moley

Michigan Law Review

It is well known to those who have attempted to secure final reliable and significant statistical data concerning crime and the enforcement of the criminal law in the United States that only the barest outline of the American crime problem is shown by the data now obtainable. Such diversity exists among recording agencies that we can not safely compare cities and states in the amount of crime reported to the police; the characteristics of these crimes or of those arrested for their crimes are so inadequately kept that little sociological data are available; we can not from material now published …

Waiver Of Trial By Jury In Criminal Cases, S. Chesterfield Oppenheim

Michigan Law Review

Waiver of jury trial in criminal cases generally is a highly practical issue at the present time both from the standpoint of the public and of the accused. The belief is common that the element of delay is one of the primary causes of the general disrespect attaching to the courts of criminal juridiction. It is said that an overzealousness in shielding the citizen against oppression and injustice has resulted in shifting to the background expedients designed to simplify and give momentum to the disposition of criminal cases.

The Legal Position Of Foreigners In Soviet Russia, Leo Zaitzeff Dr.

Michigan Law Review

The Soviet Government has replaced the entire previous legal order by legislation of its own; it is therefore not surprising that even in well informed legal circles outside of Russia very vague and indefinite notions exist regarding the legal situation there. In the last few years moreover, many states have considered it necessary to recognize the Soviet Government. Since this recognition or even before, there have been some economic undertakings within &met territory by foreign individuals, but even these persons for the most part were entirely unfamiliar with the Soviet laws.

The Law School And The Professional Tradition, Roscoe Pound

Michigan Law Review

Only historians know that Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin were once, at least in legal theory, governed by the Custom of Paris. That fact has not left a mark upon the actual law of any of those jurisdictions. Nor is the reason far to seek. In the pioneer days of the French occupation of this part of North America there was little scope for such law as is to be found in books. There was need only for a rude administration of offhand justice in the simple concerns of a frontier society. And had there been need for anything more, the …

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 …

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 …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Book Reviews, Burke Shartel, Grover C. Grismore, S C. Ho, S M. Ho, Evans Holbrook, Henry M. Bates

Michigan Law Review

History of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851. By Mary Floyd Williams. University of California Publications in History, Volume XII. "Berkeley: The University of California Press. 192I. Pp. xii, 543.

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). …

Judges In The British Cabinet And The Struggle Which Led To Their Exclusion After 1806, Arthur Lyon Cross

Michigan Law Review

Among the anomalies in the queer and devious course of Eng- £ lish constitutional progress few have been more striking than the number of reforms which have been due to the Conservatives.. One of no little significance was brought about during that period of political stagnation-the era of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. This was the exclusion of judges from the Cabinet, as the result of a political struggle in which the forces of opposition, though temporarily defeated, formulated a policy which was destined henceforth to prevail.

History Of Michigan Constitutional Provision Prohibiting A General Revision Of The Laws, W L. Jenks

Michigan Law Review

Alone among the states of the Union, Michigan has, since i85o, pr6hibited any general revision of the laws and permits only a compilation of laws in force without alteration. As practically all the neighboring states, as well as New York, from which much of the early legislatiorf of Michigan was derived, have continued to revise their statutes from time to time, it may be interesting to see why Michigan alone has thought it desirable not only to stop the practice which it followed until I85o, but to prevent effectually its legislature from ever attempting it in the future.

Reading From Ancient Chinese Codes And Other Sources Of Chinese Law And Legal Ideas, John Wu

Michigan Law Review

With the legal profession today there is a growing interest in Vthe study of universal legal ideas. Legal ideas, it would seem, gain strength by extension both in time and in space. ,As ius" gentium is necessarily more congenial to human reason than ius civie, so it may. be said that the laws of all ages are more deep-seated in human nature than those of a particular generation. The scope of comparative jurisprudence, therefore, embraces all the length and breadth of legal scholarship, so that it cannot afford to ignore any materials that may give us light upon the legal …

Public Policy And Personal Opinion, John B. Waite

Articles

THE real relation of economics to law, only recently acquiring positive recognition, is illuminated by the varying decisions in regard to attempted restrictions on the enjoyment of personal property.

Administering Justice The Medical Prepossession, Clarence A. Lightner

Michigan Law Review

This quotation is from a recent document coming from con- servative and intelligent sources, recommending as a cure for economic and commercial unrest, and other evils, the creation of a League of National Guilds.

Adminsration Of Justice In The Lake Michigan Wilderness, George Pickard

Michigan Law Review

There is a strange and quite unassembled story to be told of the part played by the administration of justice in the development of civilization out of the wilderness that surrounded the great Lake Michigan basin. This vast body of fresh water that now serves as an inter-communicating medium for great centers of modem life, was once only a great separating sea between long reaches of forests, infested with Indian tribes. Here and there were little clusters of cabins, inhabited by an adventurous people, who, within the span of two centuries, were submitted to the successive sways of three great …

Note And Comment, Edson R. Sunderland, Abraham Jacob Levin, Ralph W. Aigler, Edgar N. Durfee

Michigan Law Review

New Trials for Technical Errors - A witness called to testify is presumed to be of good character. Hence no proof of it is necessary. But out of abundant caution this presumption is fortified by evidence. The witness is thus shown to be in fact exactly what the law presumes him to be. Result-the case is reversed for the commission of this grave and prejudicial error.-Lockett v. State (Ark. 1918), 207 S. W. 55.

New Trials For Technical Errors, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

A witness called to testify is presumed to be of good character. Hence no proof of it is necessary. But out of abundant caution this presumption is fortified by evidence. The witness is thus shown to be in fact exactly what the law presumes him to be. Result-the case is reversed for the commission of this grave and prejudicial error.-Lockett v. State (Ark. 1918), 207 S. W. 55. No one but an American lawyer could treat the above statement seriously. Only an American court could announce so extraordinary a decision. In no other English speaking country would the people tolerate …

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."

Courts In The Philippines Old New, David Cecil Johnson

Michigan Law Review

Administration of justice, involving the settlement of disputes and the punishment of crime, is and always has been a vital function of government; in fact, it might well be said to be the basis of all orderly government. The experiment in government which was begun by the American people when they separated themselves from the domination of England reached a new stage in its development when Admiral Dewey was victorious in Manila Bay on May i, 1898. It is perhaps impossible to determine at this time whether this new stage is to result in an attempt at colonization or in …

The Need Of A Scientific Study Of Crime, Crimninal Law, And Procedure--The American Institute Of Criminal Law And Criminology, Eugene A. Gilmore

Michigan Law Review

The multiplying instances of the delay or seeming miscarriage of justice, together with the indications that crime is not diminishing in this country, as it is in most progressive European countries, are responsible for the widespread feeling that American Criminal Law and Administration are ineffective as a corrective system, and thus fail adequately to protect society; that as President Taft puts it, "The administration of criminal law in this country is a disgrace to our civilization." Defective organization of courts, cumbrous and costly procedure and excessive emphasis on technicalities afford an undue advantage to the law-breaker of means and deepen …

The Recall And The Political Responsibility Of Judges, W. F. Dodd

Michigan Law Review

The movement for the recall of State officers is one which has became important only within the past three or four years. The first application of the recall as a modem institution in the United States appears to have been in Los Angeles in 19o3, where the institution was adopted in the amendment of the charter framed by that city. From Los Angeles the recall as applicable only to municipal officers spread to other California cities, and has now been rather widely adopted in other States. The first State constitutional amendment with respect to the recall, that of California in …

The Judicial Reforms Of The Reign Of Henry Ii, Richard Hudson

Michigan Law Review

Inasmuch as this paper is to deal with the judicial reforms of the reign of Henry II, and more particularly with the extension of the jurisdiction of the king's court during that period, we must at the outset, for the purpose of comparison, make a brief study of the courts, their jurisdiction, and their methods of procedure at the close of Saxon and the beginning of Norman times. Mention should first be made of the courts of the hundred and of the shire, for it was in these public local courts, particularly in the former, that in early times justice …

Book Reviews, John R. Rood

Michigan Law Review

Bell: The Principles of Argument; Quirós:Modern Theories of Criminality; Gross: Criminal Psychology. A manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students.;

Statutory Abolition Of Defense Of Insanity In Criminal Cases, John R. Rood

Articles

The great lengths to which the defense of insanity has been carried in homicide cases has induced numerous legislative attempts to abolish the evil; and the fate which such legislation has met and deserves at the hands of the courts is a matter of considerable interest.

Some Contributions Of Psychology To The Conception Of Justice, James Tufts

Michigan Law Review

The two general standpoints from which all attempts to define justice and rights proceed, are that of the individual and that of the social whole. From the standpoint of the individual, we have such principles as 'to every man according to his deserts,' or 'to every man according to his needs,' as well as the stubbornly surviving principle of natural rights, which is imbedded in our institutions even though discredited by philosophers. From the standpoint of society, we have the principle that justice means the determining of individual relations by the general order and the subordinating of individual to public …

Jurisdiction Over Foreign Ships In Territorial Waters, Charles Noble Gregory

Michigan Law Review

War, says Grotius, "is undertaken for the sake of peace." So discussion is undertaken for the sake of conclusions. If the conclusions are not as definite as could be wished in the present instance, it is hoped that it is not wholly due to the indolence or incompetency of the writer, but in large part to the difficulties presented by the overlapping of municipal and international laws, and by the lack of any final tribunal which can adjust and end differences. Again Grotius, and there is no better authority, quotes approvingly certain rules of mercy as part of the law …

Administrative Powers Of The President, John R. Fairlie

Michigan Law Review

Turning now to those particular branches of administration where the Constitution confers on the President special powers, we shall find that in these fields he has still more ample authority. Not only do the constitutional grants guard him from encroachment on the part of Congress, but they enable him at times to assume a large degree of legislative power.

Ho Ah Kow V. Matthew Nuan, Thomas M. Cooley

Articles

"An ordinance of San Francisco, that every male person imprisoned in the county jail, under any judgment of the any court having jurisdiction in criminal cases in the city and county, should immediately upon his arrival at the jail, have the hair of his head 'cut or clipped to an uniform length of one inch from the scalp thereof,' and made it the duty of the sheriff to have this provision enforced, is invalid, being in excess of the authority of the municipal body....

The ordinance being directed against the Chinese only, imposing on them a degrading and cruel punishment, …