1,721,081 research outputs found
Book Review: Equity Jurisprudence
No full textThis work purports to be a treatise upon the entire field of equity. The point of view of the author is the traditional one-namely that equity is in itself a distinct and unified branch of jurisprudence. The method which the author has employed in the treatment of his subject is likewise the traditional one. Notwithstanding, he conceives of himself as a pioneer in this field. His notion is that equity has been treated too much as the sum of the jurisdictional factors of the Chancery courts, the growth of which has been outlined largely by the shortcomings of the common law. He insists that equity has been viewed too much in the light of a historical accident, a congeries or catalogue of maxims and standards of conduct for tribunals of a certain type. His thesis is that equity is far more than a heritage of the past and that law schools should accord to it the position of dignity in the science of jurisprudence to which it is fairly entitled. After the announcement of these views in his preface, the author proceeds to develop and expound his subject in the same manner that has been employed by the majority of scholars in his field in the past
Book Review: Salmond on the Law of Torts
No full textThe pre-eminence of the author and the distinction of the editor make this, theeighth edition of Salmond on Torts, a book to challenge the attention of the legal professionboth in England and America. Since the first edition in 1907, this book rapidly attained, and has maintained, its position as a classic exposition of the law of tort.Indeed, Sir John Salmond contributed much to the development of tort law as a distinct body of rules, the coherence of which depended upon certain demonstrable legal principles. The present edition, the second by Dr. Stallybrass, is of particular interest in that it represents a great deal more than what is commonly understood as a new edition of an older text. When in 1928, the editor undertook the seventh edition of this work, he quite properly imposed that restraint upon his efforts which is to be expected when one scholar first edits the text of another. In prefacing that edition,the editor stated: I have in general only departed from Sir John Salmond\u27s treatment of a topic where either new cases or fresh research have made his views no longer tenable (p. viii). In the present edition, however, the editor has felt free to depart not only from the text of his author but to abandon fundamental principles from which analytical development proceeds. In a very true sense the present work can properly be described as Stallybrass rather than Salmond on torts. For example, in the seventh edition the editor made use of the device of excursus in which to set forth views on particular problems which varied greatly from those held by Salmond and which presumably the editor regarded as equally or more tenable than those of his author. In the present edition, this method is abandoned, although there is no failure to indicate in fairly controversial situations wherein the views set forth differ from those held by the author. In the judgment of the reviewer, Dr. Stallybrass has performed a task of great merit. He has extended the life of a text which has enjoyed a justifiable popularity. He has qualified the text and, when necessary, altered the method of analysis of tort problems to conform to the development of legal thought in this field during the last dozen years. To do so required not only great courage but great familiarity with case-law and the writings of legal scholars over a very wide field
Book Review: Charles Dickens as a Legal Historian
No full textAs a source for many helpful sidelights on legal history, the eminent author regards the novels of Charles Dickens as particularly valuable. There are, he says, two main reasons why Dickens\u27 pictures of the courts, the lawyers, and the law of his day have this unique value. In the first place, they give us information which we can get nowhere else. In the second place, these pictures were painted by a man with extraordinary powers of observation, who had first hand information
Book Review: From the Physical to the Social Sciences
No full textHere is a book of such first rate quality that it deserves a wider reading than it is likely to receive. It is of first importance because it represents a splendid attack upon the problem of the method of social science. If the views presented in the book are sound, they throw some light upon the probable direction of the method of the various disciplines constituting this branch of science. While the author does not purport to present his philosophical views in a systematic manner, they are, of course, implicit in his treatment of the subject
Book Review: A Declaration of Legal Faith
No full textIn this small but inspiring book, an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court sandwiches a semi-technical discussion of the Commerce Clause between two layers of political philosophy. Indeed, what is essen- tially political philosophy is as ill-concealed in that part of the volume deal- ing with interstate commerce as it is in the author\u27s judicial opinions. The middle of the book is pretty good; the first and last parts eloquent. The reader can hardly escape the emotional sincerity and intellectual integrity which characterizes every page and line
Book Review: Res Ipsa Loquitur: Presumptions and Burdens of Proof
No full textHere are four hundred and eighty-six pages of heavy discourse on the familiar doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, which Mr. Albert Levitt assures us in an introduction is learned, keenly analytical and comprehensive and Justice Carter characterizes as a step along the road of clearer thinking concerning the doctrine, an important goal in the administration of justice. It might be added that the volume is embelished with an invocation that there be Justice, quotations from Samuel, James Greenleaf Whittier, Plautus, Terence, Alciatus and the author himself
Book Review: A Treatise on the Law of Personal Property
No full textProfessor Brown has written a book on those segments of the law which are traditionally grouped in the law schqol course under the heading, Personal Property. Here the author has treated problems connected with the original acquisition of property in things, the acquisition of property by finding, by adverse possession, by accession and confusion, by gift, by sale, and by judgment and its satisfaction. He includes within the scope of his book a treatment of bailments, liens, with special reference to pledges, fixtures and emblements. It will be seen at once by those familiar with the traditional law school course in Personal Property that this text parallels the leading case books on the subject
Book Review: Handbook of the Law of Torts
No full textHere is another hornbook. All the objections which for years have been leveled at this type of book are, of course, applicable to this one. It must be said for the author, however, that he comes as near bending the hornbook pattern to the task of writing an acceptable treatise on the law of torts as it is possible to achieve. His black letters are fair summarizations of the text which follows it, lacking the deceptive simplicity which characterizes many such books. He has reduced dogmatism to the minimum and has formulated his propositions in terms relatively unobjectionable. Indeed, his mastery of this technique is such that it almost persuades one that there is some virtue in the hornbook method
Book Review: Legislative Loss Distribution in Negligence Actions
No full textThis volume deals with two problems, contribution between tortfeasors and comparative negligence. Since every author must have a starting place at which certain presumptions underlie the subsequent processes of reasoning, Professor Gregory has taken as his point of departure the superiority of the principles of comparative negligence and contribution between wrongdoers over the prevalent common-law principles of contributory negligence as a complete defense to a plaintiff\u27s action and the rule of no contribution between tortfeasors. He takes it as self-evident that these principles furnish a theoretically fairer basis for loss distribution in negligence cases than the accepted principles of the common law. With this hypothesis as the basis for his discussion, he devotes the study to the administrative and procedural difficulties involved in the application in litigation of the principles of contribution and comparative negligence
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