Legal History Commons^™

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Curiosities Of The Law-Mandatory Injunctions In The Double Negative

Michigan Law Review

The ridiculous practice of framing mandatory injunctions in the double negative seems to have originated in the famous case of Lane v. Newdigate. The bill was filed by a tenant of a water power mill against his landlord, who owned other lands upon the mill stream, to enforce covenants in the lease, praying specifically that defendant be decreed to remove certain locks which he had erected and restore certain gates and canals which he had destroyed or failed to keep in repair. The case came before Lord Eldon on a motion for a temporary injunction, which was heard ex …

International Unions For The Protection Of Industrial, Literary And Artistic Property, M. Ostertag

Michigan Law Review

The League of Nations, whose guests we presently are in this handsome city of Geneva, is certainly the most· important of the associations of states because its purpose, the peace of the world, is the most noble. It is also one of the youngest of such associations. You do me a great honor, Ladies and Gentlemen, in asking me to introduce to you today two much older sisters of the League of Nations, sisters whose reputation is indeed less brilliant and universal, but of whom people may perhaps say what they say of married ladies: "The best are always those …

A Monument To The American Sense Of Justice, Wade Millis

Michigan Law Review

In this national anniversary year of profound memories we meet in a garden spot of Michigan within the boundaries of a county that possesses high distinction in being the theatre of important historical events and the home of many who have been notable for their achievements in the profession of the law and in the broad fields of statesmanship.

Early American Price-Fixing Legislation, Arthur S. Aiton

Michigan Law Review

One of the most pernicious delusions of legislators is the persistent notion that the enactment of a law is the panacea for any human ill from short sheets in hotels to the immodesty of certain styles of female apparel. The history of law-making is strewn with the wreckage of freak legislation of this character but the law-mills, heedless of the past, continue to spew forth new monstrosities and to revive old failures. That the human family cannot be legislated into a set mold of behavior and that the economic laws which underlie trade and intercourse cannot be enacted out of …

Imprisonment For Debt, Richard Ford

Michigan Law Review

Imprisonment for debt is usually thought of as a barbarous custom which declined continuously as civilization and Christianity advanced and which was totally done away with long ago. The facts, however, are otherwise. It seems doubtful if history warrants any generalization to the effect that the imprisonment of debtors has been a steadily declining practice. Certain it is, that in a greater or less degree it exists today in many parts of the United States, in England, and in some other countries. Moreover, creditors are making use of it on a comparatively large scale. It is the purpose of this …

Appeal Of Death

Michigan Law Review

A note from Mr. Justice Riddell says: "In my paper, 'Appeal of Death and Its Abolition.' 24 MICH. L. REV. (June, 1926) at p. 793, it is said, 'when the widow was Appellor, the issue was tried by a jury because a woman could not fight.' While this was generally true, the statement indicating universality was made per incuriam of course, the trial was sicut curia consideraverit; and sometimes Battel was awarded in the case of a woman-appellor.

Appeal Of Death And Its Abolition, William Renwick Riddell

Michigan Law Review

The Appeal of Death-or, as it is sometimes called, the Appeal of Murder, because it was generally invoked in cases of murder although cases of manslaughter were also within its scope-was an interesting survival of ancient law which continued its existence in England until a little more than a century ago, and which, when it fell, brought down a mass of crumbling and antiquated rubbish, which served no good purpose and might-sometimes did-do harm.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Erring Judges Of The Thirteenth Century, William Renwick Riddell

Michigan Law Review

The Royal Historical Society (of London) has published much material of great interest to lawyers-an humble Fellow, I think none is more interesting than that published in 1906: "State Trials of the Reign of Edward the First, 1289-1293".

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

The Law School And The Professional Tradition, Roscoe Pound

Michigan Law Review

Only historians know that Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin were once, at least in legal theory, governed by the Custom of Paris. That fact has not left a mark upon the actual law of any of those jurisdictions. Nor is the reason far to seek. In the pioneer days of the French occupation of this part of North America there was little scope for such law as is to be found in books. There was need only for a rude administration of offhand justice in the simple concerns of a frontier society. And had there been need for anything more, the …

The New Holdsworth, Arthur Lyon Cross

Michigan Law Review

In view of the fact that Pollock and Maitland do not go beyond the time of Edward I and Reeves no further than Elizabeth's reign, Professor Holdsworth, in publishing a revision and extension to the eighteenth century of his well known work, ventures to point out that it is "the first continuous history of English law that has ever been written". And so it is, to the point to which he has carried it thus far. One more volume at least is promised in the near future; while it is to be hoped that subsequent contributions may ultimately appear. "From …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

A Modern Instance Of Zenothemis V. Demon, John M. Zane

Michigan Law Review

That a specific rule in Greek law should be of value to the decision of a legal question arising among us would seem at first blush improbable. Both the historical and analytical jurists have insisted so strongly upon the causes which tend to make any system of positive law something peculiar in itself that they have obscured the fact that the rules of substantive law are quite likely to be the same for like circumstances among nations which have reached a comparatively high level of civilization. The now dominant school of juristic thought, which teaches what its foremost exponent has …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

International Law, Edwin D. Dickinson

Reviews

Professor Dickson reviews "International Law," by C. G. Fenwick, noting that there are many such books available on the topic: monographs, casebooks, digests, collections of documents etc. He finds some of the material worthy of passing criticism and notes that "The chapters vary somewhat in quality and quantity." But Dickinson also praises "the fine tone of impartiality which makes it possible to present matters both recent and controverted in the restrained and temperate manner of the true scientist."

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.

The Federal Uniform Procedure Bill

Michigan Law Review

After eleven long years of reposing in the files of the judiciary committees, the Federal Procedure Bill (S. 2061), sponsored by the Committee on Uniform Judicial Procedure of the American Bar Association, has finally been favorably reported by the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, and the patron of the bill, Senator A. B. Cummins, will call it up for passage during the early days of the December session of Congress. For eleven long years opponents of the bill have succeeded in keeping it in committee files, and it is to be expected that the proponents of the measure will have …

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 …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Recognition Of New Types Of Negotiable Instruments, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

“The expression ‘negotiable instrument’ is one of variable meaning, and what is meant thereby often can be determined only by the context… Primarily ‘negotiable’ indicates transferability with a certain facility…..

“It may be not without interest to consider how instruments gain the negotiable quality and to trace, sketchily perhaps, the process of recognition.”

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Contracts--Modern Rules As To Past Consideration Furnished At Request

Michigan Law Review

Very early in the history of contract law it was recognized that goods delivered or services rendered in the past could not furnish valid consideration for a present promise, for there was no quid pro quo, no element of exchange. But the equities in favor of the promisee in such cases, in view of the fact that assumpsit would lie only on an express promise, were frequently so strong that in 1615 we find an exception created. Lampleigh v. Brathwait, Hobart 105, held, that if the past services or goods had been furnished at request, the present promise …

Arrest Without A Warrant, Horace L. Wilgus

Michigan Law Review

The word arrest comes from the Latin through the French, and literally means to stop, stay or restrain. In law it relates to restraints upon a person's liberty of locomotion, movement from place to place. To require one to keep her mouth shut is not an arrest, even if wrongful. Every detention or "confinement of the person is an imprisonment, whether it be in a common prison, or private house, or in the stocks," or in the open street or elsewhere. Where codes define false imprisonment "as the unlawful violation of the personal liberty of another," the gist of the …

The Passing Of The Partnership By Operation Of Law

Michigan Law Review

A case recently decided in the United States Supreme Court, Giles et al. v. Vette et al., Sup. Ct. U. S. Adv. Ops. Jan. 7, 1924, No. 59, gives us another illustration of the clever way in which the codifiers of the UNIFORM PARTNERSHIP ACT steered their course between the epithetical jurisprudence, built upon the case of Waugh v. Carver, [1793] 2 Henry Blackstone, 235, and the jurisprudence of realities, derived from the interpretation of Cox v. Hickman, [1861] 8 H. of L. cases, 268, by the English court in Mollwo v. Court of Wards, [1872] …

The Occupation Of Michigan, Elbridge Colby

Michigan Law Review

The British military occupation of Michigan during the war of 1812 had no real military importance. The events leading up to it were then discussed, and have since been, more as a matter of the propriety or impropriety of the conduct of General Hull and the ineffectiveness of our national military organization for war. From the standpoint of politics the incident is of slight significance. But from the standpoint of the history of belligerent occupations and military government it illustrates and touches upon several distinctly legal points.

Commercial Instruments, The Law Merchant And Negotiability, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

“Until recently apparently no serious attempt had been to make a comprehensive examination into the origins and history of commercial instruments or to explain the special doctrines attached to negotiability….

“The bill of exchange, it is said, developed as a bit of machinery to give effect to the medieval contract of cambium which was concerned with the special case of the exchange of money for money. With the growth of foreign trade the difficulties and dangers of payments multiplied. Naturally those whose business it was to exchange monies were resorted to in this connection. They, in turn, out of necessities …

What The American Law Institute Means To The Law School, Herbert F. Goodrich

Articles

"While in no sense a law school affair, the American Law Institute is so intimately connected with the progress of the law and legal education that it justifies mention here. The Institute was organized at a meeting of judges, lawyers and law teachers, held in Washington in February, 1923.... The Law School of the University of Michigan is and will continue to be intimately connected with this movement for the improvement of the law...."