Law Commons^™

Review Of Contemporary Chinese Law: Research Problems And Perspectives, Whitmore Gray

Reviews

This excellent collection of studies deals with both the substance of the legal system of Communist China and the problems of its study. Contributions include an appraisal of Communist Chinese legal publications, discussions of refugee and survey interviewing techniques as methods of gathering information, a review of Communist Chinese attitudes toward international law, and a series of articles dealing with Chinese legal terminology in a number of fields which contain a substantial amount of substantive law in the interstices.

Reviewed Work: Escapism: The Logical Basis Of Ethics By P.H. Nowell-Smith And Lemmon, Layman E. Allen

Reviews

Review of P.H. Nowell-Smith and E.J. Lemmon, Escapism: the logical basis of ethics; in Mind.

Review Of Concerning Dissent And Civil Disobedience, By A. Fortas, Terrance Sandalow

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Noah Chomsky has written of Justice Fortas' essay that it "is not serious enough for extended discussion." It would be a mistake to dismiss the essay so lightly. The prestige of Justice Fortas' office almost inevitably will gain for the essay an audience it would not otherwise have had, among whom will be those who will confuse the office with the argument. For some this confusion will insulate the argument from criticism. For others it will tarnish the office.

Review Of Labor And The Legal Process, By H. H. Wellington, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Reviews

If there is a more acute intellect than that of Harry Wellington at work today in labor law, I am unaware of it. This makes his new book all the more troubling, for it reveals the limitations, or perhaps I should even say the deficiencies, of a highly rational approach to the regulation of industrial relations. Professor Wellington has two stated objectives (he disclaims any attempt at a comprehensive text on labor law). First, he wishes to appraise "the role of the legal process in moving collective bargaining to its present position at the center of national labor policy." Second, …

Reviewed Work: Escapism: The Logical Basis Of Ethics By A.N. Prior, Layman E. Allen

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Review of A.N. Prior, Escapism: the logical basis of ethics; in Essays in moral philosophy.

Reviewed Work: Obligation And Modal Logic, Layman E. Allen

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Review of H.N. Castaneda, Obligation and modal logic, in Logique et analyse.

Review Of The Law Of Restitution, Whitmore Gray

Reviews

The appearance of this excellent treatise is a major step toward a better understanding of the place of restitution in Anglo-American law. The authors' exhaustive treatment of the English case law and the inclusion of much American authority give a perspective on the field which has not previously been available. Like the 1937 Restatement of Restitution, this is a presentation in one volume of legal and equitable remedies for enforcing a substantive right to restitution.' It goes well beyond the uneasy, loose association of the legal and equitable parts of the Restdtement, however, and gives us a unified treatise. Until …

Review Of The Validity Of Sales Contracts: A Comparative Study, Whitmore Gray

Reviews

These 2 volumes are a slightly revised version of the substantive reports prepared by the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg (Director: Professor Konrad Zweigert) for the Rome Institute for the Unification of Private Law. They were designed to serve as a basis for the elaboration and discussion of a new uniform law on this subject matter, which would supplement the 1964 Hague conventions on a Uniform Law on the International Sale of Goods and Uniform Law on the Formation of Contract for the International Sale of Goods.

Review Of Handbook Of Appellate Advocacy, By M. Josephson., Douglas A. Kahn

Reviews

The practice of appellate advocacy may well be the most abused skill in the legal profession. The successful conduct of an appeal can preserve a client's favorable verdict or reverse his losses; and an appellate determination is often dispositive of the case. Yet, while most members of the bar recognize that trial litigation requires specialized training, too many attorneys regard appellate advocacy as commonplace and devote little or no effort to the study of the techniques of brief writing and oral argument. I have personally observed a sizeable number of cases which were lost on appeal, not because counsel failed …

Review Of Michigan And Federal Estate And Tax Planning, By P. Chirco And S. Ward, Douglas A. Kahn

Reviews

Any evaluation of a book of this nature must be made in light of its purpose and its intended audience. The authors recognize that estate and tax planning is too broad a subject to be treated comprehensively in a single volume, and, consequently, they quite properly made no effort in that direction. Rather, their apparent purpose was to furnish the non-specialist with an annotated form book containing textual discussions of tax and estate planning problems, with particular emphasis on local Michigan law.

Review Of Better Settlements -- Through Leverage, By P. J. Hermann. , James J. White

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Who ever learned to negotiate from a book? Probably no one, and one who seeks the kernel of wisdom which will make him an expert negotiator, who seeks the password for admittance to the negotiator's sanctum sanctorum-that person will hunt in vain through the pages of Mr. Hermann's book. I do not mean to suggest either that Mr. Hermann has withheld something in his power to reveal or that he has explicitly promised such a revelation. Rather, I suggest a flaw either in our perception and analysis or in our verbal skills. One of them, probably our perception and analysis, …

Review Of The Soviet Legal System And How Russia Is Ruled, Whitmore Gray

Reviews

Is there a legal system in the Soviet Union, and if so, what is its role in post-Stalin Soviet society? The Soviet Legal System for the first time makes it possible for a lawyer or law teacher to plunge directly into a very rich collection of translations of case decisions, statutes and doctrinal commentary. Even without a background in Soviet studies, the authors' valuable commentary and the reader's own legal training should make it possible for him to evaluate the material presented. With the help of the new edition of Fainsod's How Russia Is Ruled he can see the development …

Review Of The Supreme Court On Trial, By C. S. Hyneman., Jerold H. Israel

Reviews

Professor Hyneman's book represents still another entry in the current debate over the proper role of judicial review in a democratic society.' Although he approaches this subject via an analysis of several recent attacks upon the United States Supreme Court, Professor Hyneman essentially deals with the same topics-the legitimacy of judicial review, the proper standards applicable to constitutional adjudication, and the alleged departure of the school segregation cases2 from those standards-that have served as the subject of several books and at least a score of articles published within the past five years.3 Indeed the writing in this area has grown …

Review Of A Bibliography On Foreign And Comparative Law, Whitmore Gray

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This volume is a most welcome addition to the author's first compilation of English language materials on this subject which covered the period to 1953. The present volume includes books and articles from April 1, 1953 through 1959 and a few articles of special importance after that date. It also includes a few earlier items not included in the first volume.

Review Of The Soviet System Of Government, Settling Disputes In Soviet Society, Government, Law And Courts In The Soviet Union And Eastern Europe, And The Law Of Inheritance In Eastern Europe And In The People's Republic Of China, Whitmore Gray

Reviews

Each of these four books makes a significant contribution to the rapidly growing body of literature on the communist legal systems. Together they provide an introduction to Soviet law and legal history and a basis for its comparison with the law of other countries within the communist bloc. Before examining the books individually a brief description of their contents may be in order.

Review Of Digest Of Procedural Statutes And Court Rules: Pleading, Joinder And Judgment Record, By E. G. Brown, John W. Reed

Reviews

This is no bedside reader. One is, I suppose, adequately warned by the title to expect something less agreeable than a collection of short stories from the New Yorker. Digests are not made to be read seriatim. Lawyers, familiar with case digests, know better than to expect anything very stimulating to develop from an evening spent in random reading of, say, volume 22 (Mayhem to Motions) of the Third Decennial Digest. One is reminded of the man who said that the dictionary would be interesting reading if it didn't change the subject so often. Well, a digest doesn't change it …

Review Of Jurisprudence: Men And Ideas Of The Law, By E. W. Patterson, John W. Reed

Reviews

Jurisprudence: Men and Ideas of the Law was written as a textbook for students enrolled in Columbia's jurisprudence course. It appeared first inmimeograph in 1940, and has gone through three revisions before emerging in its present printed form. Thirteen years is not a record incubation period, but it typifies the care and thoroughness with which Professor Patterson works and with which he has prepared the present volume. Each sentence, each paragraph, each section is, to me, a clear statement of his meaning and serves his purpose well.

Review Of Pre-Trial, By H. D. Nimis, John W. Reed

Reviews

Mr. Nims has undertaken to catalog the pre-trial procedures currently in use in state and federal courts and administrative agencies. Apparently, he asked judges in nearly every jurisdiction for statements of their views and practices, and there is here set forth a summary of, and many excerpts from, their replies. The book contains also an eighty-five page analysis of the reported decisions involving pre-trial questions, an extensive appendix, which includes minutes of pre-trial hearings and specimens of orders, and an exhaustive bibliography.

Review Of Successful Tax Practice, By H. C. Bickford, John W. Reed

Reviews

For some years now, those who came to the bar before federal taxes attained importance have been lamenting their unfamiliarity with the field and the consequent loss of clientele. Not a few clients have joined in the lament, often upon the stimulus of an unexpected and unnecessary tax bill. The bar is aware of the problem, and its attempts to meet it have ranged all the way from tax institutes for interested lawyers to cart-before-the-horse attempts to exclude non-lawyers from practice in the tax field. I suggest that Mr. Bickford's readable book is one of the most promising answers to …

Review Of Cases And Materials On Taxation, 2nd Ed., By P. W. Bruton, John W. Reed

Reviews

This is a better book than Professor Bruton's first edition. It is a different book, too; substantial and useful revision is apparent, not only in the selection of recent materials but also in the arrangement of those materials. As taxation casebooks go, one must agree that this is a well executed opus.

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

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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...."

Permanent Court Of International Justice, Edwin D. Dickinson

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"The author of this volume of collected papers and addresses is well known as the Bemis Professor of International Law in Harvard Law School, sometime member of the Legal Section of the Secretariat of the League of Nations, and the most efficient advocate of the new Permanent Court of International Justice in America. His enterprise as an advocate is sufficiently attested by the fourteen brilliant papers reproduced in this volume and the nine other titles of similar nature listed in the bibliography, all of them produced during the last three years....

"The exceptional timeliness of the book and the quality …

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

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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.

International Law, Edwin D. Dickinson

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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."

Prize Cases Decided In The United States Supreme Court, 1789-1918, Edwin D. Dickinson

Reviews

"It seems something of a paradox that our first and only complete collection of Supreme Court prize decisions should be published at last under the auspices of an endowment for international peace... And it has been the admirable purpose of the Carnegie Endowment to promote peace by rendering more available all authoritative sources of information about international affairs.

"There is more in common, indeed, between peace and prize cases than a mere matter of contact with international affairs. The development of international law, both as a general system and as a part of municipal law, has been developed by prize …

The Equality Of States, A Study In The History Of Law, Edwin D. Dickinson

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"This is a reprint in book form of three essays recently published by Dr. Goebel in the Columbia Law Review. The author attempts, as he himself has expressed it, 'to indicate that the historical background of the doctrine of equality of states in international law is of considerable importance not only for the purpose of fixing the origin of the doctrine as a coherent principle of law, but also because it indicates how necessary and inevitable the notion has been from the very inception of international relationships in Europe.'"

A Guide To Diplomatic Practice, Edwin D. Dickinson

Reviews

"Sir Ernest Satow's Guide to Diplomatic Practice was first published in 1917. It was the first systematic treatise on the practice and procedure of diplomacy to be printed in the English language, covering a field already occupied in other languages....

"...[T]he author compiles a wealth of data accumulated in research and long experience in what may perhaps be described as the professional diplomatist's book of forms and precedents... It is chiefly a digest of diplomatic data intended to afford practical guidance in the routine of diplomatic organization, precedence and ceremonial, procedure, immunities, international congresses and conferences, the making of treaties …

Review Of Fundamentals Of Procedure In Actions At Law, By A. W. Scott, Edson R. Sunderland

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Professor Sunderland writes: "A comprehensive and critical study of those essential principles which serve as the groundwork of the system of procedure employed in actions at law has been a great desideratum in America for a hundred years .... The title of Professor Scott's book raises the hope that at last a scholarly, analytical study of this elusive, complex and immensely important field has made its appearance. But the title is misleading ..."

Review Of Cases On Contracts, By G. P. Costigan, Ralph W. Aigler

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Professor Aigler notes that other works on the subject have appeared in the past year, such as a collection of cases on contracts in the American Casebook Series by Professor Corbin and the new edition of Williston's Cases on Contracts. He feels that law teachers may be particularly interested in the notes, which "... are copious, are very interesting, and valuable." His verdict: "How well Professor Costigan's book will work out as the basis of instruction only actual use can tell. A careful examination of the book, however, has satisfied the reviewer that it would be interesting to try it."

Documents And Their Scientific Examination, Victor H. Lane

Reviews

Professor Lane's short review of a "little work" that touches on "the composition and behavior of inks, pencil pigments, sealing wax, and other writing materials in connection with their use upon documents." Lane feels that "A study such as this is of material importance in presenting expert evidence in civil and criminal cases..."