Law and Society Commons^™

The Educated Citizen's Responsibility In An Age Of Change, John F. Kennedy

Vanderbilt Law Review

Many things bring us together today. We are saluting the ninetieth anniversary of Vanderbilt University, which has grown from a small Tennessee university and institution to one of our nation's greatest, with seven different colleges, and with more than half of its 4,200 students from outside of the State of Tennessee. And we are saluting the thirtieth anniversary of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which transformed a parched, depressed, and flood-ravaged region into a fertile, productive center of industry, science,and agriculture. We are saluting-by initiating construction of a dam in his name--a great Tennessee statesman, Cordell Hull, the father of reciprocal …

The Lawyer's Response To The Demand For Both Stability And Change Through Law, Orison S. Marden

Vanderbilt Law Review

We need not worry about the lawyer's response to the need for stability in the law. The average lawyer is a conservative chap who does not favor change unless the need for it has been proved to the hilt.Nor need we tender full apologies for this hardheaded attitude, for,as Judge Cardozo once said, "certainty and uniformity are gains not lightly to be sacrificed. Above all is this true when honest men have shaped their conduct upon the faith of the pronouncement." At times, however, we have allowed these considerations, important as they are, to outweigh even more compelling reasons for …

Law And The Dilemma Of Stability And Change In The Modernization Process, Lucian W. Pye

Vanderbilt Law Review

Even as a student of comparative politics my interests have led me more to analyzing the newly developing countries, countries which often appear to be impervious to principles about the rule of law. Out of this awareness of my limitations for this occasion, I have chosen as my theme what I feel to be a significant paradox about the role of law in the modernization process which is now engrossing the energies of the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Boldly stated, this paradox is that historically, when Western law was introduced into traditional societies with the …

Legal Institutions And Social Controls, Philip Selznick

Vanderbilt Law Review

When the architects of this program asked me to discuss non-legal social controls, I assume they had in mind the need for greater humility within the legal profession. So proud an occasion as this calls for sober reflection on the limits of the distinctively legal-on the contingent, derivative, and partial place of formal adjudication and control within the larger ordering of human society. I have no objection to communicating such a perspective, there by adding an appropriate note of piety to these proceedings. Nevertheless, I think it may be more important for us to consider some of the great social …

The Creative Power And Function Of Law In Historical Perspective, Harry W. Jones

Vanderbilt Law Review

The creative work of legislators, administrators, judges, and practicing lawyers is far more than a "response" to social change. Through-out recorded history, law itself has been one of the greatest of the forces of social change. Change and stabilization are, as Donald Young has reminded us, part of the same social process, and law is at the heart of that process. Let us concede, and readily, that the command theories of law embodied in the writings of Bodin, Hobbes, and Austin exalted unduly the pervasiveness of law's imperatives as the controlling influence on the behavior of men in society. At …

Stability And Change In Constitutional Law, Robert B. Mckay

Vanderbilt Law Review

Constitutional law, like other law, is rooted in the conservative tradition of the legal system as a whole and thus more willingly pays court to the muse of history and the force of precedent than to the muse of sociology and the demand for revision. It is therefore not surprising that lawyers read constitutions as law, in the ordinary meaning of that word, and that judges apply constitutional provisions as they do other law...

The Constitution of the United States was not cast in legal mold by accident, but by design that was itself the product of ineluctable history. A …

The Ethical Foundation For The Pragmatic Conception Of Justice, Anton Donoso

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since the death of John Dewey ten years ago, his thought has been the subject of a number of works, some of the most significant of which deal with his philosophy of law and of justice. The question of his conception of justice arises out of his general effort to show that the resolution of moral conflicts between various claimants is possible by the use of the scientific method, by which is meant intelligent examination justified by reliable public test through reference to consequences. This entails the formulation of a norm of justice that is both valid (true) and morally …

Book Notes, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

A TREASURY OF LEGAL QUOTATIONS Selected by Paul C. Cook New York:Vantage Press, 1961. Pp.181. $5.00

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COLONIAL JUSTICE IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS Edited by Joseph H. Smith Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961. Pp.ix, 426. $7.50.

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THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: ITS BUSINESS, PURPOSES, AND PERFORMANCE By Paul A. Freund Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1961. Pp.224. $1.35.

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A LAWYER'S VERSUS. By Irving J. Siegal New York: Vantage Press, 1960. Pp.40. $2.00.

The Moment Of Truth: Probability Theory And Standards Of Proof, V. C. Ball

Vanderbilt Law Review

Specialists in all the fields involved agree that the process of proof and persuasion in judicial proceedings presents problems in the application of probability theory and communication theory. When the broader term "information" is used, the problems coalesce, both in judicial trials and in other human affairs. In jury trials, one focus of this coalescence is the formulation for the jury of issues of fact to be decided by them, and their progress to verdict or disagreement.

Although Cicero asserted that probability is the very guide of life,and Thomas Jefferson thought mathematical reasoning and deductions were a fine preparation for …

Justice, Language And Communication, Julius Stone, G. Tarello

Vanderbilt Law Review

The present paper has been concerned to stress that jurisprudence, insofar as it is not limited to analytical jurisprudence, dare not overlook the distinctive qualities either of common language, or of the special language of lawyers. For what its authors deny above all is the utility of so defining a field--like the justice-field--which is a segment of common language, in terms of a special language or logical structuring similar to those used by lawyers. Nor do we think that the presence of considerations of justice (and therefore of common language statements) in the process of the operation of law, either …

Four Eighteenth Century Theories Of Justice, Clarence Morris

Vanderbilt Law Review

This paper is about an important facet of the justice theories of four eighteenth century European philosophers. The earliest of the four, Hume, thought justice and law were purely human inventions. The next, Montesquieu, said that justice preceded laws because possible relations of justice existed before human ordinances were enacted, and that man, who lives peacefully in the state of nature, invents unjust exploitation after he enters a state of society. Then followed Rousseau who pronounced that contemporary governments had enchained freedom and subverted justice, and whenever a just government did come to power its excellence was doomed to fade. …

The Pure Theory Of Law, Reginald Parker

Vanderbilt Law Review

There is hardly a theory of law about which there exists so much confusion in the minds of so many scholars as about Hans Kelsen's theory, which is commonly known under the name "Pure Theory of Law." If, for instance, a scholar of the stature and standing of Professor Northrop maintains that Kelsen locates the basic norm of the Austrian Constitution of 1920 "in the earliest Constitution of 1867,"'then it seems that there is still room, indeed an intellectual demand, for a brief and simple exposition of Kelsen's theory. We shall attempt it in the following article not without avoiding …

E. Jordan: Critic And Metaphysician Of Modern Civilization, Andrew J. Reck

Vanderbilt Law Review

Elijah Jordan (1875-1953) was one of the most original social and, legal philosophers in the history of American thought. Jordan spent his life in the midwest, near the rural setting from which he came, serving as professor of philosophy at Butler College in Indianapolis from his appointment in 1913 until his retirement 31 years later. Jordan wrote a half dozen volumes that comprise for American philosophy a unique contribution the full significance of which has still to be measured: The Life of Mind,' Forms of Individuality, Theory of Legislation, The Aesthetic Object, The Good Life Essays in Criticism, and on …

John Dewey--A Philosophy Of Law For Democracy, Jay W. Murphy

Vanderbilt Law Review

On what bases can a philosophy of law be founded which is equal to the task of the democratization of man in the world today? The purpose of this article is to present some suggestions concerning the fuller use of John Dewey's philosophy in this important regard. In addition to an examination of Dewey's theory of justice, it will be suggested that the richness of Dewey's thought and the variety of its uses in legal scholarship and legal education have yet to be felt.

Book Note, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Reflections With Edmund Burke

By Timothy P. Sheehan

New York: Vantage Press, 1960. Pp. 288. $5.00

reviewer: Law Review Staff

I Am Not My Guest's Keeper, Warren A. Seavey

Vanderbilt Law Review

The laisez-faire policy of the common law recently won a resounding victory in Pennsylvania. In an action for the death of her husband, the plaintiff alleged that he was invited by the defendant to visit the latter's land for a consultation upon problems common to their work, strip-mining for coal, which requires deep cuts in the land from which it is necessary to remove accumulated water; that during the conversation the defendant invited the deceased to aid in the repair of a pump in one of the water-filled cuts; that the defendant, by "urging, enticing, taunting and inveigling" his visitor, …

A Variety Of Freedoms, Stanley D. Rose

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Idea of Freedom: A Dialectical Examination of the Conceptions of Freedom By Mortimer J. Adler Institute of Philosophical Research. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co. 1958. Pp.xxvii, 689. $7.50 . . .

Each year a number of books appear which are devoted to the subject of freedom. This has been going on for at least two thousand years. But a reading of only a few of this multitude of volumes will show that one man's freedom is not necessarily another man's. It appears obvious that some order and classification ought to be introduced into our thinking about this …

Book Note, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Evolution is but a means through which the intelligence of God is operating, and thus is irreversibly progressive and dominated by a finality or goal, yet the means for the attainment of that goal have not been rigidly fixed. Man has personal liberty, and, to a certain extent, can transcend nature; but he cannot transcend the creation of life, nor cause the abolition of death. Physically, man has probably evolved about as far as he can go; intellectually, specific individuals have attained the ultimate goal, and the race as a whole has made some progress towards it; but morally, very …

Book Reviews, Paul Carrington, J. Allen Smith, Stanley D. Rose

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Reviews --

The John Randolph Tucker Lectures--1953-1956 Lexington, Virginia School of Law, Washington and Lee University, 1957. Pp. 208.

reviewer: Paul Carrington

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Desegregation and the Law By Albert P. Blaustein and Clarence Clyde Ferguson, Jr. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press,1957. Pp. xiv, 332.

reviewer: J. Allen Smith

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The Federal Tort Claims Act By William B. Wright Forward by Emile Z. Berman New York: Central Book Co., 1957. Pp. 248.

reviewer: Stanley D. Rose

The Christian Lawyer As A Churchman, William Stringfellow

Vanderbilt Law Review

Comparative studies of moral theology and legal philosophy are irrelevant if they are isolated from the concrete life of worship. Similarly, the question of the Christian vocation of the practicing lawyer must not be solely an attempt to articulate some ethics to guide a lawyer in his decisions in work. The Christian life is not so much about deciding and doing as it is about being that which Christians are called to be. Precisely, Christians are what they are called to be in worship. Worship is not an ancillary folk activity to which Christians resort out of sentiment or superstition, …

Book Reviews, Dix W. Noel, E. M. Morgan, J. Olin White, Samuel E. Stumpf

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Reviews

Handbook of the Law of Torts, 2d ed. By William L. Prosser St.Paul: West Publishing Company, 1955. Pp. xii, 952. $10.00

reviewer: Dix W. Noel

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Impartial Medical Testimony A Report by a Special'Committee of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York New York: The Macmillan Company, 1956- Ppr. ix, 188: $3.95.

reviewer: E.M. Morgan

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Modern Trials By Melvin M. Belli Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, Inc., Three Volumes, 1955. Pp. 2,763. $50.00.

reviewer: J. Olin White

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Law and Morality By Leon Petrazycki (Translated by Hugh W.Babb with an Introduction by Nicholas S. Timasheff) Cambridge: …

Domestic Relations -- 1954 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

An important case dealing with testamentary restraint upon adoptions was decided by the Tennessee Supreme Court during the survey period.' The case was one of first impression in this jurisdiction and appears to be one of the few decisions upon the subject in the United States. In his will testator created a trust for his granddaughter, the child of his deceased son. He imposed a condition that if the child were adopted before her eighteenth birthday by someone outside testator's immediate family, and if her name were changed, then the trust should terminate and the corpus be distributed to other …

Book Reviews, Jay W. Murphy, Edmund M. Morgan (Reviewer), Reginald Parker (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

Readings in Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy

By Morris R. Cohen and Felix S. Cohen

New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1951. Pp. viii, 944, $8.50

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Jurisprudence: Men and Ideas of the Law

By Edwin W. Patterson

Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1953. Pp. viii, 649.

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Jurisprudence -- Its American Prophets

By Harold Gill Reuschlein

Introduction by Roscoe Pound

Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1951. Pp. xii, 527, $7.50

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Law and Society in Evolution

By Sidney Post Simpson and Julius Stone

Introduction by Roscoe Pound

St. Paul: West Publishing Co.,1948. Pp. xlvi, 692

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Law in Modern Democratic Society

By …

Book Reviews, Henry L. Mcclintock, John W. Green (Reviewer), Leon D. Hubert, Jr. (Reviewer), Wallace Mendelson (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

Some Problems of Equity

By Zechariah Chafee, Jr.

Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Law School, 1950. Pp. xv, 441. $4.50

reviewer: Henry L. McClintock

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Four Score Forgotten Men

By Tom W. Campbell

Little Rock: Pioneer Publishing Company, 1950. Pp. 424

reviewer: John W. Green

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Uniform Code of Military Justice, Explanation, Comparative Text and Commentary

By Frederick Bernays Wiener

Washington, D. C.: Combat Forces Press, 1950. Pp. 275. $3.50.

reviewer: Leon D. Hubert, Jr.

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Dred Scott's Case

By Vincent C. Hopkins

New York: Fordham University Press, 1951, Pp. 213. $4.00.

reviewer: Wallace Mendelson

Sanctions, Law And Public Order, George H. Dession

Vanderbilt Law Review

A more creative conception of criminal law, and a more scientific and policy-minded approach to the organization of research, instruction and con- sultation concerning the use of criminal and other negative sanctions, 'have long been in making in the minds of many working in the field, in many widely separated places. My purpose in this paper is briefly to describe the kind of program currently conceived-to these ends in the Yale School of Law. Stemming from a series of exploratory studies and seminars conducted over the past few, years in collaboration with members of the Departments of Anthropology, Psychiatry and …

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 …

Legal Realists, Legal Fundamentalists, Lawyer Schools, And Policy Science--Or How Not To Teach Law, Fred Rodell

Vanderbilt Law Review

Increasingly over the past years, there has cropped up in the law reviews a special kind of leading article. It does not deal with anything courts are doing or legislatures are doing or lawyers are doing; it does not even deal with what courts or legislatures or administrators or lawyers ought to be doing; instead, it deals with a subject of apparently endless and obviously narcissistic fascination to the law teachers who write the articles. It deals with the teaching of law. More precisely, these articles are concerned with how the law teachers who write the articles think other law …