Law Commons^™

The Genocide Convention And The Constitution, Myres S. Mcdougal, Richard Arens

Vanderbilt Law Review

What is traditional for common crimes can scarcely be oppressive innovation for mass-murder. Even freedom of communication is not, furthermore, an absolute in democratic preference: security and human decency must likewise have their place.

It is no little irony that argument must be made in support of a convention to suppress genocide. "The spectacle," writes a contemporary journal of opinion, "of modern man explaining his right to existence is an odd one." The Genocide Convention is but one of many interrelated measures in a world-wide program to secure peace and respect for the dignity of the individual human being. Rational …

Patent Monopolies And Free Enterprise, Myron W. Watkins, George W. Stocking

Vanderbilt Law Review

Public policy has long recognized the intimate relation between a dynamic technology and a well-adjusted economy. Without experiment, industrial arts stagnate. Rightly understood, invention is synonymous with improvement in the industrial arts, and invention comes about only from experimenting. Not every inventor finds what he is looking for, true enough, or is looking for what he finds. But unless, consciously or unconsciously, he is seeking a new way to do something or a new "combination of matter" he will never discover anything.

To encourage experiment and thus foster technical improvment is the avowed purpose of the American patent system. The …

Conflict Of Laws In Multistate Fraud And Deceit, William O. Beach Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Unlike most conflict of laws questions, the choice-of-law problem in tort actions based on multistate fraud and deceit has been given surprisingly little attention. Until recent years the problem had been raised in but two or three reported cases, and no real attempt had been made to analyze and clarify it. The recognition and scanty treatment of the problem in the Restatement of Conflict of Laws' has perhaps been primarily responsible for the growing awareness of it in the courts in the past two decades. Nevertheless, neither the courts nor the secondary authorities have come forward with a thorough study …

Admissibility In Criminal Prosecutions Of Proof Of Other Offenses As Substantive Evidence, Clinton J. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

"The general rule has been well established that on prosecution for a particular crime evidence which in any manner shows or tends to show that the accused has committed another crime wholly independent of that for which he is on trial, even though it be a crime of the same character, is irrelevant and inadmissible." This statement by the Tennessee court announces the basic rule regarding the matter of proof of other crimes as substantive evidence--a rule which is quoted and adhered to in virtually every American jurisdiction. The evidence is not excluded because it has no probative value, but …

Bills To Remove Cloud In Tennessee, Henry D. Bell

Vanderbilt Law Review

The bill in equity to remove cloud from title has been recognized in all of the American states. There has been, however, no agreement among the states as to the cases which come within the scope of the bill. Every bill to remove cloud presents two essential questions: (1) does the complainant have an interest in the property which entitles him to maintain the bill, and (2) does the adverse claim constitute a "cloud" on the title which equity will remove? The purpose of this Note is to review the authorities to determine what is necessary to satisfy these two …

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

BOOKS RECEIVED

BUSINESS ORGANIZATION By Alfred F. Conard Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. vii, 661. $7.00.

CASES ON FEDERAL COURTS By Charles T. McCormick and James H. Chadburn Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. 921. $8.00.

CASES AND MATERIALS ON WORLD LAW By Louis B. Sohn Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. 1363. $8.00.

FEDERAL ESTATE AND GIFT TAXATION: CASES AND MATERIALS By William C. Warren and Stanley S. Surrey Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc.,1950. Pp. vii, 518. $7.00.

HATCH ACT DECISIONS By James W. Irwin Washington. United States Government Printing Office, 1949. Pp. v, 304. …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

RECENT CASES

ATTORNEYS--REINSTATEMENT PROCEEDINGS--JURISDICTION OF DISBARRING COURT

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AUTOMOBILE LIABILITY INSURANCE--ESTOPPEL BY JUDGMENT--PRIOR JUDGMENT AGAINST INSURED AS BAR TO INSURER'S DEFENSE OF LACK OF COVERAGE

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BURGLARY INSURANCE--CRIMINAL ACT OF EMPLOYEE OF INSURED--HARM TO THIRD PERSON AS JUSTIFICATION

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CHATTEL MORTGAGES--MORTGAGEABILITY OF I.C.C. CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY--APPROVAL OF COMMISSION AS CONDITION PRECEDENT

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--DUE PROCESS--MANDATORY MINIMUM PRICE MARK-UPS ON INTOXICATING LIQUORS

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--OATH OF ALLEGIANCE AND OATH OF OFFICE--POWER OF LEGISLATURE TO ENLARGE UPON CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION

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CONVEYANCES--CONSTRUCTION OF LIMITATIONS--ENTAILING LANGUAGE AS WORDS OF PURCHASE OR WORDS OF INHERITANCE

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CRIMINAL LAW--PRIVILEGE OF SELF-DEFENSE--DUTY OF OCCUPANTOF …

Book Reviews, Stanley D. Rose, Charles C. Trabue, Jr. (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

READINGS IN AMERICAN LEGAL HISTORY

Compiled and edited by Mark DeWolfe Howe

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949. Pp. 529.$7.50

reviewer: STANLEY D. ROSE

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THE GROWTH OF AMERICAN LAW: THE LAW MAKERS

By James Willard Hurst

Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1950. Pp. xiii, 502. $5.50

reviewer: STANLEY D. ROSE

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REASON AND LAW

By Morris R. Cohen

Illinois: The Free Press, 1950. Pp.211. $3.50

reviewer: STANLEY D. ROSE

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AN INTRODUCTION TO LEGAL REASONING

By Edward H. Levi

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1949. Pp. 74. $2.00

reviewer: STANLEY D. ROSE

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LIVING LAW OF DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

By …

Statutory Construction In Resolving Conflicts Between State And Local Legislation, Charles S. Rhyne

Vanderbilt Law Review

My contribution to this symposium will consist of the advancement of one main thesis and four subordinate and supporting ones. My main thesis is simple indeed. Procedural rules must be viewed as grants or creations of judicial power. My subordinate theses then indicate certain complications showing that in practice the matter cannot be thus wholly disposed of. Though too much reform has so assumed, it turns out that telling a court it has power does not guarantee exercise of that power. Judicial inertia, prece- dent-mindedness, love of technical niceties-all play their part in halting procedural improvement. So does, even more, …

The Position Of Statutory Construction In Present Day Law Practice, John W. Macdonald

Vanderbilt Law Review

Even the title assigned to this article emphasizes a point of view. We will consider the position of statutory construction not from the aspect of judges, appellate or trial, who must decide cases. Instead we are to look at the subject from the point of view of the practitioner, the lawyer himself. The practice of law is of course varied. And there are many fields of knowledge which control that practice. Some of these obviously do not involve law at all. The lawyer is a litigator, an advocate in court or before quasi-judicial bodies. He is also a counsellor, an …

Remarks On The Theory Of Appellate Decision And The Rules Or Canons About How Statutes Are To Be Construed, Karl N. Llwellyn

Vanderbilt Law Review

One does not progress far into legal life without learning that there is no single right and accurate way of reading one case, or of reading a bunch of cases. For

(1) Impeccable and correct doctrine makes clear that a case "holds"with authority only so much of what the opinion says as is absolutely necessary to sustain the judgment. Anything else is unnecessary and "distinguishable" and noncontrolling for the future. Indeed, if the judgment rests on two, three or four rulings, any of them can be rightly and righteously knocked out, for the future, as being thus "unnecessary." Moreover, any …

Factors Influencing Judges In Interpreting Statutes, Arthur W. Phelps

Vanderbilt Law Review

There has been recent discussion of abandoning the literal meaning rule and most of the other rules of statutory construction. A broader principle is favored which will allow the full play of the rational processes of the court. This view has great appeal, and, in terms of freeing judges who apply rules as rules without regard to their object, serves a need. But if it means a sudden release of the judiciary from always starting with a statute as it reads--as it is written--as it has meaning for most of us--it is a harmful suggestion. Law is something more than …

A Better Theory Of Legal Interpretation, Charles P. Curtis

Vanderbilt Law Review

We have, almost all of us, I think, been brought up in the belief that the interpretation of legal documents consists essentially in a search for the intention of the author. I take it the classic, and I am sure the most elegant, exposition of this doctrine is the paper which Vaughan Hawkins, almost ninety years ago, in 1860, read before the juridical Society. Thayer printed it as an appendix in his Preliminary Treatise on Evidence and said of it, "the nature of the inquiry is described with penetration and accuracy." Hawkins states our creed in a few sentences...

"[I]n …

Special Problems In Drafting And Interpreting Procedural Codes And Rules, Charles E. Clark

Vanderbilt Law Review

My contribution to this symposium will consist of the advancement of one main thesis and four subordinate and supporting ones. My main thesis is simple indeed. Procedural rules must be viewed as grants or creations of judicial power. My subordinate theses then indicate certain complications showing that in practice the matter cannot be thus wholly disposed of. Though too much reform has so assumed, it turns out that telling a court it has power does not guarantee exercise of that power. Judicial inertia, precedent-mindedness, love of technical niceties--all play their part in halting procedural improvement. So does, even more, a …

Some Statutory Construction Problems And Approaches In Criminal Law, James C. Quarles

Vanderbilt Law Review

Statutory construction and interpretation, important in every field of law, is vital in a field containing a large number of legislative acts and a considerable body of appellate court decisions construing them. For this reason alone, statutory construction problems are particularly significant in criminal law. Many American jurisdictions punish no activity other than that expressly declared criminal by statute.' The Federal Government, which of course punishes no crimes except those defined by Congress, has contributed to this growth of the criminal law through the imposition of many duties and the proscription of various activities relating to the collection of revenue, …

A Study Of Interpretation In The Civil Law, Mitchell Franklin

Vanderbilt Law Review

Pound has indicated that comprehensively law connotes legal precepts, received legal ideals or ideological aims, and professional legal method or process.' Historically the interpretation of law in the main has been professional, such power being exercised by means of juristic ideas pertaining to legal method.

Hence Coke referred to the "artificial reason" of the English common law; and Windscheid said that the legal method of the Roman law was not a science, but an "art" (Kunst), which had to be learned through experience as well as through theory.

Past attempts to defeat such esoteric control of law have not been …

Legal Writing On Statutory Construction, Paul H. Sanders, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

This review does not purport to provide a complete critique of the various works in the field of Statutory Construction. It is not directed primarily to the specialist. Instead, it is intended to bring together for the benefit of the general practitioner the various books and other writings on the subject and thus amounts essentially to a bibliography. But an effort has been made to suggest the approach of the longer works and to estimate in some measure their value. Thus this symposium on the subject of Statutory Construction can be rounded out by providing convenient reference to other writings …

Cooperative Action For Improved Statutory Interpretation, Frank E. Horack Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

During the past quarter century there has been a constant acceleration in legal periodical comment concerning statutory construction. Judges, practicing attorneys and law professors all have echoed basic dissatisfaction with the operation and application of the rules of statutory interpretation. Some would return to the "safe old ground" of literal interpretation; others would find relief in an expanded use of extrinsic aids; all find the process in a state of confusion and disintegration.

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recent Cases

Automobiles--Family Purpose Doctrine--Automobile Owned by other than Head of Family

Contracts--Effect of Illegality--Recover Where No Moral Turpitude involved and Purpose of Statute Not Violated

Corporations--Liability of Officer to Creditors for Excessive Salary--Burden of Proof on Defendant to Show Reasonableness

Criminal Law--Proximate Cause--Responsibility for Death Due to Acts of Persons Opposing a Felony

Criminal Law--Violation of the Mann Act--Actual Transportation Entirely within a Single State

Evidence--Confidential Communications between Spouses--Admissibility of Testimony as to Conduct of Party Spouse

Insurance--Commercial--Radius Endorsement in Automobile Insurance--Effect of Breach after Return to Designated Area

Personal Property--Finding Lost Goods--Chambermaid's Right to Goods Found by Her …

Trends In The Use Of Extrinsic Aids In Statutory Interpretation, Glendon M. Fisher Jr., William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

As evidenced by the increasing numbers of court decisions which involve statutes,' and by the large and continually growing literature in the field, the subject of statutory interpretation is one of the most important in modern law. Although it is a field in which exact rules of automatic application can very seldom be formulated, only recently a member of the Supreme Court pointed out the great need for a set of "consistently accepted principles of interpretation." Since the primary purpose of all statutory interpretation is to ascertain the meaning and to effectuate the purposes of the legislature, and since words …

Informal Marriages In Tennessee--Marriage By Estoppel, By Prescription And By Ratification, Robert E. Kendrick

Vanderbilt Law Review

Tennessee courts have the means for upholding informal marriages whenever the social reasons are sufficiently strong to impel them to do so. This is a very desirable result, and one which is not open to the criticism that the courts are inviting or encouraging informal marriages as against the ceremonial, statutory marriage. These devices are not alternative means of attaining the marriage status ab initio, but are merely remedial devices looking backwards, which the courts may use on occasion when satisfied that it is for the good of the state and society, as well as for the parties and their …

The Tennessee Law Of Adoption, William Merlin

Vanderbilt Law Review

On April 6, 1949, the Tennessee Legislature passed the most comprehensive adoption act in the state's history.' The purpose of this Note is to evaluate that statute, bringing up to date the status of the adoption law in the state. Primarily, it is hoped that this Note will be of help to the practicing lawyer; and for this reason, the text has been divided to show separately the procedural and substantive aspects of the law. Of course, the distinctions made are sometimes arbitrary and unnatural. At times natural sequence has been altered for the sake of clarity. But it is …

Remarks On The Theory Of Appellate Decision And The Rules Or Canons About How Statutes Are To Be Construed, Karl N. Llewellyn

Vanderbilt Law Review

If a statute is to make sense, it must be read in the light of some assumed purpose. A statute merely declaring a rule, with no purpose or objective, is nonsense. If a statute is to be merged into a going system of law, moreover, the court must do the merging, and must in so doing take account of the policy of the statute-or else substitute its own version of such policy. Creative re- shaping of the net result is thus inevitable. But the policy of a statute is of two wholly different kinds-each kind somewhat limited in effect by …

Statutory Construction In Resolving Conflicts Between State And Local Legislation, Charles S. Rhyme

Vanderbilt Law Review

As creatures of the states, our municipalities occupy a unique position in our governmental scheme. Not endowed with sovereignty, the municipality possesses no inherent powers, and can only do that which is authorized by the state.' The exercise of local powers, therefore, becomes the exercise of those powers which have been conferred upon it by state legislative action. Possible exceptions to this are those states in which "home rule" has been constitutionally conferred upon municipalities, by which authority to form local governments and to administer municipal affairs in the manner desired by the local electorate prevails. In view of the …

Interpretation Of Statutes In Derogation Of The Common Law, Jefferson B. Fordham, J. Russell Leach

Vanderbilt Law Review

The tendency of the lex scripta to supplant the lex von scripta has carried far since Roscoe Pound published his provocative paper on "Common Law and Legislation" in 1908. One can note at the same time indications that statute law is being received with much less hostility. The surprising thing, however, is that legislation in general is not at this day getting a far more sympathetic reception by lawyers and judges. Clearly they make up the professional group which has the largest share in the drafting and enactment of statutes. In actual practice, moreover, lawyers are given to committing private …

The Interpretation Of Statutes In Modern British Law, W. Friedmann

Vanderbilt Law Review

Mr. Justice Frankfurter recently said that the number of cases coming before the Supreme Court of the United States which were not based on statutes was "reduced almost to zero." This growth of statutory as against pure case law is, of course, not confined to the United States. It inevitably accompanies the social welfare state and the increase in government which every modern industrial society has experienced and which two world wars, with their need for the total mobilization of resources, have further stimulated. Apart from these sociological factors which affect states with the most different legal systems, it is …

Tort Liability Of Oil Companies For Acts Of Service Station Operators, William T. Gamble

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since the advent of the automobile, travel by motor vehicle has been ever-increasingly prevalent, and consumption of gasoline in the large amounts so required' has necessitated the existence of a great number of retail service stations. For various reasons the major producers of petroleum products have thought it desirable to retain some connection with the distribution of their products until those products pass to the hands of consumers, and consequently nearly all such major producers have established extensive systems of retail outlets which sell only that producer's products and under its exclusive trade names. Because of the great number of …

Book Reviews, Paul H. Douglas, Cecil Sims (Reviewer), Ray Forrester (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Reviews

Congress on Trial By James M. Burns New York: Harper & Brothers,1949. Pp. vii, 224. $3.00

reviewer: Paul H. Douglas

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Language and the Law By Frederick A. Philbrick New York: MacMillanCo., 1949. Pp. v, 254. $3.75

reviewer: Cecil Sims

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Commentary on the U.S. Judicial Code By James William Moore Albany: Matthew Bender and Company, 1949. Pp. viii, 684. $10.00

reviewer: Ray Forrester

Basic Coverage Of The Amended Federal Wage And Hour Law, Paul H. Sanders

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1949 became effective on January 25, 1950, as a major revision of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. New "white-collar" regulations of the Wage-Hour Administrator, governing the exemption from this statute of executive, administrative and professional employees, likewise became operative on the same date. Together, these changes bring about a most substantial alteration in pre-existing federal controls over minimum wages, overtime pay requirements and child labor.

Tort Actions For Injuries To Unborn Infants, William T. Gamble

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recently two American courts have recognized a right of infants to recover for prenatal injuries. In so meeting the challenge of the common law that "for every wrong there is a remedy" they have taken a step which no other court of final jurisdiction has taken on the strength of the common law alone...

That an infant "en ventre sa mere" is a distinct entity is a scientific, common sense, legally recognized fact. That this entity may suffer prenatal injuries and carry those injuries into postnatal life is well known. That in many cases adequate proof of causal relation could …