Digital Commons Network^™

Telegraph, Telephone And Wireless-Tapping

Michigan Law Review

A recent Federal case, Olmstead v. United States, suggests an interesting problem. Evidence obtained by Federal authorities, who tapped private telephone wires, was admitted in a criminal prosecution. It seems to be the general rule that fraudulently, wrongfully, or illegally procured evidence is admissible, if otherwise admissible. And certainly the courts have required telegraph companies to disclose messages to aid criminal prosecutions. Telegraph operators have been compelled to testify. And even where a state statute forbade disclosure of the message by the company, a subpoena duces tecum has compelled the production of a telegram to aid the courts. Testimony …

Treaties-Scope Of Treaty--Making Power--When Treaties Are Self-Executing

Michigan Law Review

The scope of the treaty-making power, and the considerations that govern in determining when a treaty is self-executing and when it requires subsequent legislation to make its terms effective, received an interesting discussion in a recent case decided in the United States District Court of the District of Maryland.

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.

Equality In International Law, Arnold D. Mcnair

Michigan Law Review

Under this title 1 propose to discuss the present position of the old doctrine of the Equality of States, to consider whether it has been helpful in the development of international society, and what prospect there is of that society finding in international law an instrument wherewith to bring about less inequality between States than at present exists.

Injunction In Labor Disputes--Anti-Trust Laws--"Secondary Boycott".

Michigan Law Review

Since the passing of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1890 there has been an enormous increase in litigation concerning the trade union and its activities. When the Supreme Court in the Danbury Hatters' case8 held that labor organizations were included in the provisions of the Sherman Act, and that the so-called "secondary boycott"' was a violation of the terms of this act, labor felt that it had lost a very effective weapon and at once began to fear that the very existence of the labor union was in danger. Not having much hope of relief from the courts, the forces …

The Institute's Restatement And The Michigan Law, Herbert F. Goodrich

Michigan Law Review

The task which the American Law Institute has undertaken is to make a statement of the common law, in its various branches. The end in view is not codification; indeed the idea is directly opposed to codification. It is hoped to have, when the work is completed, an accurate statement of existing common law, carefully and systematically made, from which local variations and peculiarities have been ironed out. It is hoped, in other words, to restore both accuracy and continuity to the pattern of the common law fabric as it is woven in our judicial mills.

Unconstitutional Conditions And State Powers, S. Chesterfield Oppenheim

Michigan Law Review

The genesis and development of the so-called doctrine of unconstitutional conditions represent a phase of the general problem of the division of state and federal powers. Its importance was first recognized in the series of cases dealing with the power of the state over foreign corporations seeking to do business within its borders, for it was in those decisions that the Supreme Court moderated the absolutism of the principle announced in Paul v. Virginia, by the indefinite qualification that the conditions of admission must not be "repugnant to the Constitution or laws of the United States".

Constitutional Law-Eminent Domain-Michigan Constitutional Provision

Michigan Law Review

The necessity for the exercise of the power of eminent domain in a given case is a legislative question into which the courts cannot inquire, unless an abuse of legislative power is asserted. This results from the very nature of the power to take property for a public use, which power in itself is inherent in sovereignty. When the legislature determines to take a piece of property it is exercising the power in the normal manner. If the use is public, no further determination is necessary once the legislative decision is made. The real reason for the rule would seem …

Carriers-Statute Of Limitations For Bringing Suit For Injury To Goods

Michigan Law Review

A recent case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States suggests the query-ls there a federal statute of limitations for bringing suit for injury to goods in an interstate shipment? The answer depends on the interpretation of the Cummins Amendment of March 4, 1915 and the Transportation Act of 1920. The relevant and germane provision of these acts as to the time limit for commencing suit for injury to goods on an interstate carriage is "That it shall be unlawful for any such common carrier to provide by rule, contract, or regulation a shorter period for giving notice …

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.

Natural Law In American Constitutional Theory, Fowler Vincent Harper

Michigan Law Review

Natural law has had many meanings and diversified interpretations. Whether in the form of jus naturale, the law of nature, the law of reason, lex naturalis, lex aeterna, natural justice, or due process of law; natural law, in the broadest sense, has evolved as the needs of a particular civilization and the endeavors of its legal scholars have directed. It is significant, however, that as a philosophy of law, natural law continues to thrive, although the particular system which one community constructs may be abandoned by succeeding generations. Periods of growth in the law have been frequently accompanied …

Books Received

Michigan Law Review

A list of books received by Michigan Law Review

A Rational Theory For Joinder Of Causes Of Action And Defences, And For The Use Of Counterclaims, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

In discussing, first, the joinder of actions it will be convenient to consider three groups or classes of cases:

Class I : Where one plaintiff (or joint plaintiffs) unites in a single proceeding two or more causes of action against one defendant (or joint defendants).

Class 2: "Where two or more plaintiffs, each having a cause of action against the same party (or parties), unite their causes of action in one proceeding.

Class 3: Where one plaintiff (or joint plaintiffs) having several causes of action, each against a different party, unites them in one proceeding.

In considering each group or …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Public Utility Valuation For Rate Making Purposes

Michigan Law Review

Ever since Munn v. Illinois (1876) 94 U. S. 113, which first decided that the charges to be made for services rendered by public utilities were to be subject to governmental regulation, the courts have been confronted with a problem, so elusive and indefinite, that over five decades of litigation and wrangling have failed to provide a satisfactory solution. The so called "rule" of Smyth v. Ames (1898) 169 U. S. 466, specifying the elements to be considered in ascertaining the value of public utilities for the purpose of rate-making, has only served to submerge the problem further in its …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Publicity Of Accounts And Directors' Purchases Of Stock, A. A. Berle Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Two debates have been carried on in recent years, whose echoes are at present much before the attention both of the public and the courts. The older and quieter one, maintained in the law reviews and in a line of conflicting judicial decisions, concerns the duty, if any, resting on a corporate director who bought or sold shares of stock in his own corporation. The newer and more violent discussion, reverberating through the daily newspapers, the lay magazines, and the financial chronicles, has dealt with corporate accounts; whether they should be public and to what extent; and if not, how …

When Revocable Trusts Are Subject To An Inheritance Tax, Edward M. Stimson

Michigan Law Review

A settlor transferred property to trustees upon trust to pay the income to himself during life and after his death to his children and, ultimately, to divide the principal. The settlor reserved a power to revoke the trust and also to change its terms. Subsequently a law was passed taxing successions, i.e., all transfers by will or inter vivos, "made or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment after the death of the grantor or donor."

Constitutional Law-Regulation Of Resale Of Tickets Of Admission To Places Of Entertainment

Michigan Law Review

An addition has been made to a series of cases indicating that the United States Supreme Court is turning away from a tendency to sustain state legislation, especially where the factual basis constituting the inducement of the enactment involves debatable factors. in a five to four decision that gives the unscrupulous ticket scalpers free rein to shear all the fleece from the theatre going lambs of greater New York, the Supreme Court has held to be in violation of the Fourteenth-Amendment a New York statute limiting the resale price of tickets of admission to places of entertainment to fifty cents …

Legal Protection Of Ideas

Michigan Law Review

In the recent Pennsylvania case of Mackay v. Benjamin Franklin Realty & Holding Company, an architect was employed to draw plans for the erection of the Benjamin Franklin Hotel at Philadelphia. For some reason the construction of the hotel was abandoned before the plans were accepted. Later it was again decided to build the hotel, but in the interval the architect had died, and a second architect was employed to draw plans. He, without the consent of the personal representative of the first architect, copied his plans, which were accepted and used in the construction of the building. The …

A Re-Interpretation Of Gee V. Pritchard

Michigan Law Review

It has been said that the office and jurisdiction of equity unless enlarged by express statute are limited to the protection of rights of property. This doctrine, often repeated, has been so severely criticized and so strained in its application that one is inclined to doubt that it has appreciable vigor at the present time. Yet to borrow the phrase in which a learned writer disposed of another of equity's hoary errors, "though we may observe that the rule is dying, it is unfortunately not yet a corpse; and the difficulty is that no lawyer knows when it will be …

Injunction Against Search By Police Officers

Michigan Law Review

A nice equipoise of public and private interest is disclosed in the case of Des Moines Drug Co. v. Doe, in which the Iowa Supreme Court recently had occasion to consider questions raised by a bill in equity to enjoin a search by police officers endeavouring to enforce the liquor laws.

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.

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.

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, …

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.