Law and Philosophy Commons^™

Moral Obligation As Consideration For A Promise In Washington, Robert L. Palmer

Washington Law Review

Moral obligation has been defined as a duty which one owes and which he ought to perform, but which he is not legally bound to fulfill. In order better to understand this doctrine as applied specifically to the Washington cases and law, let us consider the history and a brief statement of the principle.

Corporate Personality, Henry Rottschaeffer

Michigan Law Review

A review of CORPORATE PERSONALITY By Frederick Hallis.

Law And The Modern Mind, Burke Shartel

Michigan Law Review

A review of LAW AND THE MODERN MIND By Jerome Frank.

Liberty, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Paradoxes Of Legal Science: A Review, Rousseau A. Burch

Michigan Law Review

This book by the distinguished Chief Judge of the New York court of appeals deals with difficulties of the judicial process when its function is creative; that is, when a judge makes law for novel situations.

The title of the book assumes there is a science of law, and the introduction takes analogues of physical science for a starting point. In physics there are rest and motion, static and dynamic ; in social affairs there are stability and changes, conservation and progress. In making decisions, the judge may be concerned with the yea of action in alteration, and the nay …

Some Implications Of Juristic Pragmatism, Fowler Vincent Harper

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

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, …

Juristic Idealism And Legal Practice, Joseph H. Drake

Michigan Law Review

The leading exponent of juristic idealism in Germany is Rudolf Stammler, Professor in the University of Berlin. He is uncompromising in his idealistic theory. He even resents being called a pragmatic idealist, possibly lest the chameleon like connotation of this word might seem to detract in any way from the absolute character of his conception of the idea. He is to be thought of rather as the third of that great triumvirate of juristic idealists; namely, Socrates-Kant-Stammler. It is then rather a curious phenomenon that wl1en his juristic philosophy is transplanted to alien soil, it is the pragmatic element in …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A list of books received by Michigan Law Review

Legislation And Judicial Decision, Rudolf Stammler

Michigan Law Review

The discussions of the theme indicated by the title usually start from Montesquieu's theory of the three powers. This famous doctrine is developed in his work "De 1' esprit des lois" (1748) Bk. II, Ch. 6. This chapter is entitled "Of the English Constitution". It discusses however all states in general. In every state there are three sorts of powers, the legislative authority, the executive authority in matters dependent upon the law of nations, and the executive authority in everything dependent upon civil law. The last Montesquieu calls the judicial power, while the one mentioned in the second place is …

The Juridical Nature Of The State, Sir Paul Vinogradoff

Michigan Law Review

Of all varieties of social co-operation, one dominates the others. It is the State, and a fundamental problem in every system of law consists in settling the legal relations between the State and its members- both the individuals and the juridical persons.

Legal Standards And Ideals, Sir Paul Vinogradoff

Michigan Law Review

Provisions for the settling of conflicts constitute the greater part of any legal system. These conflicts are not entirely governed by self interest and the idea of ethical duty does not disappear from them: it asserts itself in the shape of the balance to be established ·by the court: while every litigant presses for the satisfaction of his own claims society is called upon to adjudicate fairly between the parties: the moral notion of justice appears as the impartial attribution of what everyone in society ought to have by right. We make distinctions between men in accordance with their greater …

Presumptions, Victor H. Lane

Michigan Law Review

Persistent controversial discussions furnish evidence that there are still uncertainties as to some phases of the nature as well as the law of presumptions. We have recently come much nearer to a common understanding in this field, due to most careful and thoughtful discussions of this subject by such masters of it as Thayer and Wigmore and Chamberlayne. It is 'less with the hope of adding significantly new matter than with the belief that even that which smacks of reiteration may still assist in drawing attention which, once aroused, may ultimately dispel the fog, that this brief discussion of the …

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

Reviews

"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.'"

An Introduction To The Philosophy Of Law, Thomas Porter Hardman

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fundamextal Tendencies In Modern Jurisprudence, Rudolph Stammler

Michigan Law Review

Empiricism is a variety of skepticism. Both refuse to consider the possibility of a fundamental ordering of the mental life. But they are differentiated one from the other in the manner of working out this refusal.

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 …

The Juristic Philosophy Of Justice Holmes, John C.H. Wu J.D.

Michigan Law Review

Philosophy in the full sense," says William James, "is only man thinking, thinking about generalities rather than about particulars." In the same sense, we may describe juristic philosophy as man thinking about generalities in connection with law.

It is to be noted that I do not say "generalities of law;"--law itself being nothing more than a particular object-matter of knowledge, its generalities are to be handled by general jurisprudence rather than by juristic philosophy. By "generalities in connection with law", I mean the general problems of philosophy considered in relation to the study of law.

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 Separation Of Powers, John A. Fairlie

Michigan Law Review

One of the characteristics of both national and state governments in the United States is the existence of three separate departments,--the legislative, executive, and judicial, each coordinate and in the main independent of the others. The Constitution of the United States establishes three such departments,--Congress with legislative power, the President with executive power, and the Supreme Court and other United States courts to be established by law, with judicial power. Each of the state constitutions also provides for three similar departments in the state government.

Cause, Legal Cause And Proximate Cause, Albert Levitt

Michigan Law Review

Man is a social being; but neither by instinct nor through training does he always express himself so that no one is hurt through his self-expression. Each individual at some time or other acts in such a way that the result of his activity is an injury to himself, to another, or to the social organization of which he is a part. His activities, therefore, need to be watched and controlled. It is the function of the legal ordering of society to exercise such watchfulness and control. The law is a method of social control, and legal principles, concepts, standards …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

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, Nathan Isaacs, Horace Lafayette Wilgus, Arthur H. Basye, Leonard D. White, Victor H. Lane, Edwin D. Dickinson

Michigan Law Review

What does a judge do when he decides a case? It would be interesting to collect the answers ranging from those furnished by primitive systems of law in which the judge was supposed to consult the gods to the ultra-modern, rather profane system described to me recently by a retrospective judge: "I make up my mind which way the case ought to be decided, and then I see if I can't get some legal ground to make it stick." Perhaps the widespread impression is the curiously erroneous one lampooned by Gnaeus Flavius (Kantorowitz). The judge is supposed to sit at …

Book Reviews, Edwin C. Goddard, Evans Holbrook, Ralph W. Aigler, Edwin D. Dickinson

Michigan Law Review

Books in general, law books in particular, are like people. Most of them are ordinary, some useful, some not, but if they had not appeared they would not have been greatly missed, having appeared they will live their few years and at least seem to be forgotten. A few are so outstanding that they make a strong impress on their time and live on beyond the period of a life. If not great they have great influence and make notable contributions. Among the notable books of our time in the field of property law may be mentioned Jarman on Wills …

Copyright And Morals, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

The basis for national copyright legislation in this country is Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution: "The Congress shall have power * * * to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

Jurisprudence And The Study Of Cases, Joseph H. Drake

Articles

Following the suggestion of our Chairman, we have apparently agreed to assume that under the theme of jurisprudence we are to include all of the abstract, nonutilitarian subjects bearing upon the subject of law. Whether we call it a historical science, a science of sciences, or a philosophy, we all believe that it Is a valuable body of rapidly increasing knowledge, and our purpose now is to determine the methodological question as to how it can be made available for our undergraduate students in the law school.

Pre-Legal Education, John B. Waite

Articles

It was once thought that a lawyer's vocation was chiefly to serve his clients, so that he might bring fame and fortune to himself. The profession of law was considered only a means of livelihood, merely more difficult than clerking and more remunerative, sometimes, than carpentry. To require study for the law was thought an unfair preclusion of embryo breadwinners from an adventure with that particular occupation. Fortunately, the public mind has changed; the practice of law is no longer only a means of livelihood, but has become an important agency in promoting civilization. Some one has likened law to …