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The New Law Of Nations, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

"In these disillusioned years which are the aftermath of the World War the law of nations has come to be regarded in many quarters with a kind of sophisticated skepticism. It is freely asserted that the law has proved a futile reliance, that it has broken down, and it is asked--with an air of unbelief too obvious to be misunderstood--What is there that is ever likely to be done about it?"

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?

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 …

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 …

International Law, Edwin D. Dickinson

Reviews

Professor Dickson reviews "International Law," by C. G. Fenwick, noting that there are many such books available on the topic: monographs, casebooks, digests, collections of documents etc. He finds some of the material worthy of passing criticism and notes that "The chapters vary somewhat in quality and quantity." But Dickinson also praises "the fine tone of impartiality which makes it possible to present matters both recent and controverted in the restrained and temperate manner of the true scientist."

Review Of International Law And Some Current Illusions And Other Essays, By J. B. Moore, Henry M. Bates

Reviews

Professor Bates writes: "Most timely ... is the publication of this volume of papers by the most distinguished and the most widely experienced American scholar in the field of international law....

"Judge Moore is a firm believer in the so-called 'equality of nations' and contends that an association based upon any other theory merely invites trouble. Nor does he believe that force can be safely relied upon to preserve international peace....

"The book is of very great value. Every page of it compels thinking and reflection; moreover it is good reading even for the uninitiated...."

The Occupation Of Michigan, Elbridge Colby

Michigan Law Review

The British military occupation of Michigan during the war of 1812 had no real military importance. The events leading up to it were then discussed, and have since been, more as a matter of the propriety or impropriety of the conduct of General Hull and the ineffectiveness of our national military organization for war. From the standpoint of politics the incident is of slight significance. But from the standpoint of the history of belligerent occupations and military government it illustrates and touches upon several distinctly legal points.

Humanitarian Intervention In International Law As Related To The Practice Of The United States, Malbone W. Graham

Michigan Law Review

One of the outstanding results of the Great War, as regards international law, has been the tendency to question the bases of that law and to subject almost every portion of it to a minute examination, to determine its adequacy in governing effectively the relations of states to each other. This wholesale questioning has not confined itself merely to the laws of war and of neutrality-open as most of them may be to objection as a result of the practices in the course of the war-but also to the international law of peace, as regards the doctrine of the equality …

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.

Labor And The Law In The Public Utility Field, George Jarvis Thompson

Michigan Law Review

To the cynical this title may suggest a rhetorical antithesis, and the average citizen cannot but be a bit cynical as a result of his observation and experience of the actuality of the failure of the law to function for the preservation of the continuity of these essential public services in the frequently recurring outbreaks between organized capital and organized labor. In a great measure, he has only himself to blame for this unfortunate condition. He lent ear to the vote-seeking politician and to the propaganda of the interested parties, taking sides with one or the other without thought of …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Rules Of Warfare, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

Professor Dickinson anticipates the 1921 Conference of Washington on arms control and limitation in light of the recent world war and the special situations in the Far East. "War is abnormal, the negation of law and order, the exaltation of force..... This does not mean that codes of war law, so called, have no place or function ...."

League Of Nations And The Laws Of War, Ralph W. Aigler

Michigan Law Review

Everyone would agree that the renovation of international law presents a problem of commanding importance. Diversity of opinion is manifested, however, as soon as attention is directed to the details of the renovating process. Where to begin, what to emphasize, and how to go about it are questions which provoke a medley of discordant answers. Out of this medley a few paramount issues are beginning to emerge. One such issue concerns the so-called law of war. What shall be done about it? The World War revealed its lack of sanction, its confusion with self-interest, its chaotic uncertainty. Can it really …

Termination Of War, John M. Mathews

Michigan Law Review

The termination of war must, at the outset, be distinguished Ifrom the termination of hostilities or actual warfare. As has been said, war is "not the mere employment of force, but the existence of the legal condition of things in which rights are or may be prosecuted by force. Thus, if two nations declare war one against the other, war exists, though no force whatever may as yet have been employed."' Similarly, it follows that, although actual hostilities have ceased, the status of war may continue until terminated in some regular way recognized by international law as sufficient for that …

Book Reviews, Edwin D. Dickinson, Herman Oliphant

Michigan Law Review

The British Year Book of International Law, 1920-1921. Editor, Cyril M. Picciotto. Editorial Committee, Sir Erle Richards, Prof. A. Pearce Higgins, Sir John Macdonell, Sir Cecil Hurst, and, E. A. Whittuck. London: Henry Fioude and Hodder & Stoughton, x92o. Pp. viii, 292.

Book Reviews, Edgar N. Durfee, Evans Holbrook, Edwin D. Dickinson

Michigan Law Review

Equity, an Analysis of Modern Equity Problems Designed Primarily for Students. George L. Clark, SJ.D., Professor of Law, University of Missouri. E. W. Stephens Publishing Co., Columbia, Mo., igig. Pp. lii, 639.

Retaliation And Neutral Rights, Hessel Edward Yntema

Michigan Law Review

The readjustment of international law to the ever-changing conditions of maritime warfare has always presented problems of extreme difficulty. Particularly is this the case, when, as in the Napoleonic wars and the recent European conflict, belligerents, falling back upon the exceptional plea of necessity, attempt to modify the rights of neutral powers to their own advantage or even to involve them in the conflict. A question of this character, namely, the extent to which a belligerent in pursuing retaliatory measures against 'alleged violations of international law by his opponent, may thereby abridge the admitted rights of neutrals, was raised in …

Note And Comment, Edson R. Sunderland, Edwin D. Dickinson, Horace Lafayette Wilgus, Willard T. Barbour, Victor H. Lane

Michigan Law Review

The Writ of Prohibition - Procedural Delay - A disheartening recrudescence of procedural red-tape is found in a recent decision of the Supreme Court of Ohio. A contest arose over the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission to fix telephone rates in Cleveland. The Commission was engaged in a determination as to the reasonableness of a schedule of rates filed by the telephone company, when a petition was filed in the Common Pleas Court for an injunction against the charging of rates other than those fixed by a city ordinance.

Sources Of International Law, Charles G. Fenwick

Michigan Law Review

International law has clearly reached a drisis in its development. For a period of nearly 300 years preceding the outbreak of the present war international law appeared to the casual observer to have grown steadily and progressively. The student of history was able to point out certain clear and definite advances in the development of the law and assign them to particular dates. Grotius could be pronounced the Father of International Law, and the year 1625, which marked the appearance of his great treatise, could be set as the beginning of the modem period. A noticeable improvement in the law …

Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review, Thomas E. Atkinson, John R. Rood, Haddon S. Kirk, Harry G. Gault, William L. Owen, Harry J. Connine

Michigan Law Review

The Appam Case - On March 6 last the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in the appeals taken in the libel suits filed against the Appam and cargo in the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Virginia, affirming the decree of. restitution entered by that court.

Martial Law And The English Constitution, Harold M. Bowman

Michigan Law Review

On August 7th, 1914, three days after Great Britain had dedared war, a momentous statute, called the Deference of the Realm Act, was passed through the House of Commons with lightning speed, without a word of protest, in that spirit of decision and confidence which has marked the war measures of this Parliament.

Book Reviews, Willard Barbour, John R. Rood, John B. Waite

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Qualified Martial Law A Legislative Proposal, Henry Winthrop Ballantine

Michigan Law Review

In considering the powers and liabilities of the military in dealing with the citizen, the question of what a subordinate is to do when confronted by a conflict between the law and military orders is a difficult and interesting one. Sections 15 and 16 of the Code (the draft of which is submitted herewith), deal with illegal orders. The general rule is that persons engaged in the military service of the state or nation can find no justification in the illegal orders of a superior officer if such orders are so manifestly illegal that a man of ordinary sense could …

International Law In War, Thomas Niemeyer

Michigan Law Review

International Law in War and the International Law of War are two distinct things, and the fact that they are not carefully enough distinguished has been the source -in the present war of certain misunderstandings that are in no way unimportant.

Neutralization Of Belgium And The Doctrine Of Kriegsraison, Jesse S. Reeves

Michigan Law Review

Anything which Professor Niemeyer has to say in the field of International Law is deserving of serious attention. Under his editorial supervision the ZEITSCHRIFT INTERNATIONALES RECHT has become a valuable factor in the development of International Law in Germany. The foregoing article, which recently appeared in the JURISTICHE WOCHENSCHRIFT, has been translated with his consent with a view to its publication in these pages. The leading thought of the article is to arrive at a justification of Germany's failure to observe the Treaty of London of 1839 from the point of view of International Law. He rests his case (1) …

Marbury V Madison And The Doctrine Of Judical Review, Edward S. Corwin

Michigan Law Review

What is the exact legal basis of the power of the Supreme Court to pass upon the constitutionality of acts of Congress? Recent literature on the subject reveals a considerable variety of opinion. There are radicals who hold that the power owes its existence to an act of sheer usurpation by the Supreme Court itself, in the decision of Marbury v. Madison. There are conservatives who point to clauses of the Constitution which, they assure us, specifically confer the power. There are legists who refuse to go back of Marbury v. Madison, content in the ratification which, they assert, subsequent …

Note And Comment, Edwin C. Goddard, Ralph W. Aigler, Robert L. Mayall, Charles A. Wagner, Hester E. Yntema

Michigan Law Review

The Effect of the Carmack Amendment to the Hepburn Act Upon Limitation by Common Carrier of the Amount of their Liability - Two cases, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States on March 10, 1913, may be considered together. They are developments of the cases reviewed in II MICH. L. Rev. 460. Plaintiff shipped two boxes and a barrel of 'household goods" under an agreement that the goods, in case of loss, should be valued at $5 per hundred-weight. One box, weighing not over 200 pounds and actually worth $75, was lost. The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed …

The Mosaic Law, Clarence A. Lightner

Michigan Law Review

In recent years much has been learned of the civilization, which developed in early times in Mesopotamia. In Babylon, laws appropriate to a vast and wealthy agricultural nation, which was engaged, also, largely in commerce, had been developed many centuries before the authentic history of other peoples begins. This civilization was Semitic. A great light, where formerly but dim reflections had been seen, was thrown upon this jurisprudence by the discovery, in 1901, of the codification of the laws of Babylonia, which was promulgated by King Hammurabi about 2350 B. C. Migration from Babylonia occurred from time to time, and …

Topical Index To Recent Legal Literature, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

No abstract provided.