Jurisprudence Commons^™

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

Book Reviews, William N. Ethridge, Jr., M. G. Dakin (Reviewer), A. B. Neil (Reviewer), C. M. Updegraff (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Reviews

The Roosevelt Court: A Study in Judicial Politics and Values By C.Herman Pritchett New York: The Macmillan Company, 1948, Pp. 314,$5.00

Lions Under the Throne By Charles P. Curtis, Jr. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1947. Pp. 361. $3.50

The Nine Young Men By Wesley McCune New York: Harper & Bros.,1947. Pp. 293. $3.50

reviewer: William N. Ethridge, Jr.

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A Declaration of Legal Faith By Wiley Rutledge Lawrence, Kansas:University of Kansas Press, 1947. Pp. 82. $2.00

reviewer: M. G. Dakin

The Papers of Walter Clark: 1857-1901, Vol. 1 Edited by Aubrey Lee Brooks and Hugh T. Leffler Chapel …

Powers Of Chinese Courts, Chao-Lung Yang

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Chinese legal system has recently aroused the interest of not a few Western scholars. But little has been written about the powers of the Chinese courts. It has been said-and it is true-that the Chinese legal system belongs to the Continental type. It will, therefore, be interesting to see in what way it is different from the Anglo-American system. Generally speaking, opinions may differ as to the fundamental features which distinguish the Continental legal system from the Anglo-American. But it may perhaps b e said that such features lie more in the sphere of adjective law and legal technique …

A Note On Samuel Pufendorf, Anton-Hermann Chroust

Vanderbilt Law Review

The work of Samuel Pufendorf was certainly the outstanding influence on continental legal philosophy during the second half of the seventeenth and throughout the eighteenth centuries. From his work comes the supposedly authoritative notion that scientific natural law and, hence, true legal philosophy as such, began with Hugo Grotius. What he actually meant to say was that Hugo Grotius had secularized the natural law, that is, he had divorced it from moral theology and put it on a non-theological--and, we may surmise--on a non-ethical basis.

Sociology Of Law--A Student's Concept, Glynn A. Pugh

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Anglo-American lawyer is inclined to restrain his interest to the legal order; he becomes a specialist in the decisions rendered by the courts. The attorney, unfamiliar with present day methodology of the social sciences, is easily bewildered by the writings and judicial decisions of the sociological jurist. Part of this bewilderment may be at once eliminated by distinguishing two concepts of "law." The lawyer may conceive of the law as "that which is backed by the force of politically organized society." An inadequate amount of attention is directed toward the sources of law, its trends and its functions. Sociologists …