Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

The Unrecognized Government Or State In English And American Law, Edwin D. Dickinson

Michigan Law Review

Two years ago an American citizen who had been a resident of Mexico for many years died intestate in Mexico City. The widow was appointed administratrix by one of the Mexican civil courts. Finding among the papers a number of notes executed by an American corporation payable to the deceased, the administratrix began an action in New York to have whatever was due upon the notes paid to the estate. The corporation's attorneys moved for judgment on the pleadings, contending that an administratrix appointed by a Mexican court can maintain no action in courts of the United States so long …

Railway Valuation In Condemnation Proceedings--Relation To Rate Making

Michigan Law Review

ln England the reproduction cost of a railroad is disregarded in fixing the price which a government must pay on taking over the property. Grand Trunk Ry. v. The King [1923] A. C. 150, which affirmed the decision of two out of three arbitrators that the preferred and common stockholders should get nothing, inasmuch as the earning capacity of the railroad gave them no value, and the "reproduction" or "reconstruction'' or "replacement" value of the railroad was immaterial. Mr. Taft, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was one of the arbitrators and dissented. The opinions …

Constitutional Law--Executive Pardons In The Courts

Michigan Law Review

An interesting conflict between American political theories and early English precedents arose in a recent case involving the jurisdiction of a court of equity to set aside a pardon procured through fraud and deception upon the pardoning power. At the common law any suppression of the truth or suggestion of falsehood in procuring a pardon was held to vitiate it. HAWKINS, B. 2, ch. 37, § 8; 4 BLACK. COMM. 398, 400. The statute of 27 EDW. III, c. 2, provided that where a pardon was granted at any man's suggestion, the fact of such suggestion and the name of …

Fundamental Tendencies In Modern Jurisprudence, Rudolf Stammler

Michigan Law Review

The reception of Roman law presented new problems to jurisprudence.

At the end of the fifteenth century the reception of Roman law and canon law, together with the Lombard feudal law, was complete throughout the entire continent of Europe.

As a matter of fact, Roman law had come northward in the East from Constantinople at the same time that it was coming into Germany from the South and West; but that is for our question of no particular importance. The chief point is that everywhere there was the need of becoming familiar with this foreign law, so far as that …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

The Law Book Of The Future, William W. Cook

Michigan Law Review

In an article published in November, 1922, in the American Bar Association Journal on the "Power and Responsibility of the American Bar and its Relations to Democratic Institutions," the author pointed out the achievements of the profession in developing the law to meet the political and industrial needs of the American people. There is still other important work for the profession to do. Blackstone's and Kent's Commentaries have been outgrown and there is an imperative demand for a comprehensive and practical American treatise on all law for the use of law students and lawyers, legislators and the educated classes generally. …

The Law Of Property Act, 1922, Joseph Warren

Michigan Law Review

The English law of property legislation, which has been pending for over two years, was passed June 29 last. It will take effect January 1, 1925. For a century the reform of the law of real property has been a burning question in England-far more so than with us. Judges, lawyers, solicitors, conveyancing experts have all taken an active part. Learned societies have spoken through committees and royal commissions have reported. Piece by piece many of the antiquities have been abolished. But no reform is as far-reaching as the present act. In January, 1919, the Acquisition and Valuation of Land …

The Supreme Court's Adjudication Of Constitutional Issues In 1921-1922, Thomas Reed Powell

Michigan Law Review

The power of Congress over the territories was involved in three cases. Balzac v. Porto Rico held that Porto Rico has not been "incorporated" into the United States so as to make applicable the constitutional requirement of trial by jury in criminal cases. This had been substantially settled in some of the Insular Cases, leaving only the question whether the situation had since been changed. In holding that it had not, Chief Justice Taft placed chief reliance on the absence of any explicit declaration by Congress and on the fact that in the Organic Act of Porto Rico of March …

Archaic Methods Of Validating A Contract-The "Blow And The "Libation"

Michigan Law Review

Sir Henry Maine tells us that at the ·dawn of Roman jurisprudence the term in use for contract was one which is very familiar to students of historical Latinity. "It was nexum, and the parties to the contract were said to be nexi." MAINE, ANCIENT LAW [Ed. 10, by Pollock], 328. Manilius, a Latin antiquarian, describes nexum as omne quad per libram et aes geritur, in quo sint mancipia, "every transaction with the copper and the balance, in which class are mancipia." VARRO, DE L. L. 7, 105. Mancipation was a conveyance, and Maine says that this …

Neutrality Of British Dominions, C D. Allin

Michigan Law Review

The recent Cannes conference has revived the question of the -international status of the British dominions. Article IV of the proposed Anglo-French Alliance provided that "the present treaty shall impose no obligation upon any of the dominions of the British Empire unless and until it is approved by the dominion concerned." In short, the dominions were left free to pursue an independent foreign policy in European affairs.

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.

Judges In The Executive Council Of Upper Canada, William Renwick Riddell

Michigan Law Review

When in December, 1791, Upper Canada began her separate provincial career, her first Lieutenant-Governor, Colonel John Graves Simcoe, said that the Constitution of the Province was "the very image and transcript of that of Great Britain."'

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). …

Book Reviews, Edgar N. Durfee, Edwin D. Dickinson, Burke Shartel, Leonard D. White, Evans Holbrook, C E. Griffin, Ding Sai Chen

Michigan Law Review

Although the three lectures contained in this volume are propounded as a "trinity," the reader will not find in them that unity which is of the essence of a trinity, as distinguished from an aggregate of three. The author proposes a "triune division" of legal science, Past, Present and Future. But the first lecture deals with a particular phase of the past, the second with a remotely related phase of the present, and the last with a quite unrelated phase of the future, so that they have little in common, save the brilliance that sparkles through them all.

Requisitioned And The Government-Owned Ship, J. Whitla Stinson

Michigan Law Review

Jurisdiction over requisitioned and government-owned merchantmen and their liabilities under maritime laws are questions which present no real novelty. They were regarded by the ancient sea-law and were as familiar to it as they have recently become,-on account of the exigencies of the late war, to the admiralty systems of to-day. The maritime law of Rome supplies modem cases with the most cogent parallels and is reflected today in the jurisprudence of France and other continental and Latin countries. The jurisdictional question which figures most prominently in these cases relates to the authority to arrest or libel the property of …

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.

Statutes Of Edward I Their Relation To Finance And Administration, Nathan Isaacs

Michigan Law Review

Perhaps the most far-reaching effect of the American Civil war, in the long run, could be illustrated by a chart showing government expenditures before and after that rebirth of the nation. The jump from the bottom of the chart to the top, with no apparent tendency to return, reflects a new conception of the function of the government, the creation of new powers and a redistribution of- the old ones. In like manner one of the most significant features of the present period of reconstruction throughout the civilized world seems likely to find its graphic representation in a curve that …

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 …

Constitution Of The Empire Of Japan, George A. Malcolm

Michigan Law Review

In the history of the Japanese people, five dates stand out above all others. They are 66o B. 'C., when, according to legendary account, the Empire of Japan was founded .by the Emperor Jinmu; 1853, when Commodore Perry, with an American squadron, anchored offside what is now Yokohama and caused the opening of Japan to foreign intercourse; 1867-1868, when there was a restoration'of the monarchy, marking the beginning of the Meiji Era of Constitutionalism; and 1889, when the Constitution of Japan was promulgated.

Salient Points In The German Constitution Of 1919, Simeon E. Baldwin

Michigan Law Review

The German Constitution of i919 is the production of the right wing of those belonging to the party known as the Social Democrats, and until the fall of the empire commonly called the International Socialist ,Party.

Book Reviews, Henry M. Bates, Ernest F. Lloyd

Michigan Law Review

Constitutional Power and World Affairs, Columbia University Lectures, on the George Blumenthal Foundation, for i918, by George Sutherland. New York, Columbia University Press, 1019, pp. vii, 202. This book is one of the most interesting and thoughtful commentaries on certain phases of our Constitution which has appeared in many years. During his two terms in the United States Senate Mr. Sutherland came to be recognized as one of the ablest constitutional lawyers of the country, and his retirement in 1917 was a distinct loss to our public life. The present book is the product not only of exact, scholarly study …

British War Cabinets, John A. Fairlie

Michigan Law Review

During the progress of the present world war there has been a remarkable series of developments in the British Cabinet and, ministry, involving not only many changes of personnel but also fundamental alterations in the constitution of the Cabinet and its relations to Parliament. An analysis of these is not only of interest as an important phase of the history of the war, and the evolution of political institutions; but is also of value in dealing with problems and proposals for governmental reorganization in the United States.

Law Of Blasphemy, Robert Warden Lee

Michigan Law Review

Is Christianity part of the Law of England? It would seem that if it ever was so, it is so no longer. Such at least is the conclusion which Austin's "simple-minded layman" will undoubtedly draw from the recent decision of the House of Lords in Bowman v. The Secular Society, Limited, [1917] A. C. 4o6. The lawyer who recognizes that such phrases as the above can have little or no value in legal science will be more concerned to note the unanimous determination of the final court of appeal in Great Britain in favor of the view of the law …

Forms Of Anglo Saxon Contracts And Their Sanctions, Robert L. Henry Jr

Michigan Law Review

The several forms of contract will be taken up in the following order: I. the Surety Contract, including (a) the creditor's rights against the debtor, (b) the creditor's rights to sue the surety, and (c) the surety's right of reimbursement; 2. the Warranty Contracts, including (a) warranty of title, and (b) warranty of quality; 3. the Contract of Court Record; 4. the Coitract of Plighted Faith; 5. the Pledge Contract; 6. the' "Delivery-Promise"; 7. the Written Contract; and 8. the "Earnest" Contract.

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.

The Attaint, John M. Zane

Michigan Law Review

The assize of novel disseisinoriginally lay against the disseisor in possession in favor of the disseisee, and was soon extended to the heir of -the disseisee, but not against the heir or grantee of the disseisor. But the disseisor might be dead or might have conveyed the land, and in such a case the disseisee would be driven to the writ of right with iis delays and chance of battle. But the cases where the defendant had come into possession under a lawful title which was limited in time and had ceased to exist, i.. e., cases where there was …

The Attaint, John M. Zane

Michigan Law Review

The practice of attainting a jury was the method by which for centuries the English law corrected an erroneous finding of fact by the body of men who, in course of time, came to be called a jury. Today this necessary corrective of judicial administration is very inadequately performed by the judge or judges presiding over the trial. The proceeding is now called a motion for a new trial. The new trial is inadequate for the reason that it does not, as did the attaint, substitute a correct verdict for the one given. It merely reverses or sets aside the …

Liability Of A Carrier Under A Bill Of Lading When The Goods Have Not Been Received By The Carrier, H S. Ross

Michigan Law Review

The coming into force on January I, 1917 in the United States of the FXDMAL BILL Or LADING AcT1 has given new interest to a question which was at one time much debated, namely: should a carrier whose shipmaster or agent has signed a bill of lading be liable to an innocent holder for value of such bill of lading if the carrier can show that the goods were never shipped?

Reception Of The Roman Law In Germany, Charles Sumner Lbingier

Michigan Law Review

As in other countries. it was the universities which prepared the way for the Reception of Roman Law in Germany. Many of those great institutions which still .lead the world in learning date from about the middle of the thirteenth century, and instruction in foreign law was offered from the beginning. At first the emphasis was placed on the Canon law -but chairs of Roman law were established at Heidelberg in 1387, at Basel in 146o, at Ingolstadt in 1472, at Tfibingen in 1477, at Freiburg in 1479, at Vienna in 1493 and at Greifswald in 1498, and were filled …

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 …