THE FIRST YEAR OF ROMAN LAW. By Fernand Bernard. Translated by Charles P. Sherman. Oxford University Press. American Branch: New York. 1906. pp. xiii, 326. It is difficult to see why M. Bernard's "First Year" should have been selected for translation. There are in the French, Italian, Spanish, and German languages many first books or "institutes " of Roman law which are as good as his, and some which are better, in that they are not mere compilations but works of original value. M. Bernard, indeed, asserts in his preface that his book is not a memento or cram-book, but it has a strong family resemblance to this species of literature. It bristles with details which only an examiner of the most pedantic type would expect a student to master in his first year. It gives no idea of the evolution of the Roman law; it is almost as unhistorical as å pre-Cujacian manual. It does not vivify the institutions and rules of which it treats, or indicate their connection with social life. To illustrate: the author devotes one-twelfth of his book to describing the gradations of status between slavery and full Roman citizenship, and one-third of a page to the ius honorarium. That the former topic was of practical importance in the time of Gaius is no reason why the modern student of jurisprudence should be troubled with its arbitrary antiquarian details. To the modern student, however, it is surely of importance to know that the edicts of the Roman magistrates in the provinces and at Rome were the instruments by which the different laws of the Mediterranean basin were first fused into a harmonious system and then incorporated into the Roman law, the instruments, in a word, by which Roman law was transformed from archaic local custom into a highly developed world-law. Further evidence of the author's lack of historical sense, and illustrations of his incapacity to realize legal institutions, are afforded by his assertions that at Rome agricultural property (res mancipi) was older than pastoral property (res nec mancipi), and that mortgage without possession (fiducia), established by ceremonial sale, was older than pledge with possession (pignus). Nor is he able to perceive at least he does not indicate - the connection between the rule that gifts between husband and wife were invalid and the rules regarding matrimonial property relations and divorce. Given, as at Rome, separate property rights of husband and wife and power on the part of either to terminate the marriage relation at pleasure, it would have been possible, but for the invalidity of gifts from one to the other, for an unscrupulous wife or husband not only to get the other's goods but to get away with them. But the chief defect of the book for English and American students, is to be found in the fact that the most valuable part of the Roman law, that dealing with obligations, is dismissed in eight pages because in French law-schools obligations are studied in the second year. M. Bernard cites (in addition to the sources) only French works and such German works as are written in Latin or have been translated into French. Mr. Sherman has added numerous references to English works, but his authorities are of very unequal value and he has unaccountably ignored some of the best. He cites, for example, Roby, Colquhoun, Poste, Morey, and Marion Crawford, but, so far as the reviewer has been able to discover, he does not cite Moyle or Clark or Greenidge. As a translator, Mr. Sherman lacks the first essential power: he does not find the English equivalent for the foreign phrase. To realize, for example, that " the recruiting of the tribunes (p. 19) means making up the jury panels, and that the decree of the Senate " on the intercessio for the women (p. 24) was a law invalidating female suretyship, the English reader must start with a knowledge of French or of Latin or of both, and must mentally reconstruct M. Bernard's phrases. In many other cases Mr. Sherman clings so closely to the French word or idiom that his translation, even where it is intelligible, is not English. Not having the French text at hand, the reviewer hesitates to hold the translator liable for repeatedly writing "minor" when impubes is meant (pp. 109 et seq.), or for stating that puberty was not attained until the completed sixteenth year (p. 127), or for substituting twenty for thirty years in the lex Aelia Sentia (p. 48, n. 1). It seems improbable, however, that a French law professor should make such mistakes. There are nine pages of index; but in testing it on one particular subject the reviewer has sought in vain for the titles age, nonage, majority, minority, pubes, impubes, pupillus. M. S. THE LAW OF HOMICIDE. By Francis Wharton. Third Edition by Frank H. Bowlby. Rochester: Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company. 1907. pp. clvi, 1120. 8vo. Those who are familiar with the two older editions of Wharton will find considerable difficulty in recognizing the work in its present form. The first and second editions were of 537 and 794 pages and cited respectively about 750 and 1700 cases; the present edition has nearly as many pages and half again as many cases as the two older editions together. The index has been entirely rewritten and greatly enlarged. In general the arrangement of chapters of the second edition has been followed. In many cases, however, what was treated in a sentence in the older work has now, by the growth of new distinctions and increased decisions, grown into a topic necessitating several sections or even a chapter for its adequate consideration. Like the earlier editions, the present covers not only the 'substantive law of homicide, but the law of criminal procedure as well, so far as it relates to trials for homicide. There is also a lengthy chapter on evidence in homicide cases. The present edition has nothing to indicate what parts of it are the work of the author and what of the editor. So far as can be judged from a comparison with the second edition it would seem that the text of Wharton had been used where possible as a starting-point for further distinctions and illustrative cases, and elsewhere simply incorporated in the present text. In some few chapters, as for example that on Elementary Principles as to Malice, the language of the second edition stands practically unchanged. The treatise as it now stands has, so to speak, been "standardized." It is a logically arranged, detailed, and for the most part clear statement of the various doctrines of the law of homicide. These statements of the law have been illustrated and supported by an almost exhaustively complete collection of decisions. The annotation on the statutory degrees of murder (pp. 153 et seq.); the citations on the varying rules as to the necessity for retreat in cases of self-defense (pp. 476 et seq.) are good illustrations of the diligence with which the work has been done. For the practitioner who wants to know what the decisions are on a given point the book will prove of great value. Further than this, however, one cannot fairly go. There is little of the personality of the editor felt in the work. One feels throughout a distinct lack of the consideration of conflicting views from the standpoint of general principles, the suggestion of possible distinctions between apparently opposed cases, and the discussion of points not yet settled by decision, — elements that go to make a law treatise of the first rank. H. A. B. 12mo. HISTORY OF ROMAN PRIVATE LAW. By E. C. Clark. Part I. Sources. Cambridge: At the University Press. 1906. pp. 168. Professor Clark's purpose is to write a "new History of Roman Law," and while a firm believer in Ihering's method of treating the facts relating to the subject (to make "a generalization of the Spirit of Roman law - as a whole" on the "relation of cause and effect") he has his own special point of view: "to trace the development of that part of Roman law which has more particularly survived to modern thoughts and times," because Roman law is "an example and a lesson of experience for practical politics and actual life." This Part I., "Sources," is a critical consideration of the "sources of our knowledge" of Roman law from earliest Roman history to the last of the cited jurists or the commencement of the era of imperial codification of Roman law, -a period of nearly eleven centuries (from the traditional founding of Rome, 754 B. C., to the Codex Hermogenianus, 314-339 A. D.). Professor Clark divides the Sources into two classes, primary and secondary, and the latter are further arranged under the four subdivisions of Historians, General Literature, Antiquaries, Jurists. The primary Sources, including the recent discoveries of inscriptions, like those collected in Bruns' Fontes Juris" by Mommsen and Gradenwitz, are plainly emphasized. The secondary Sources - considered at length in nearly three-fourths of the present work are justly weighed after a careful examination into the material available to each author. Special praise should be given Professor Clark for his very complete, thorough, concise, and happy treatment of the Roman jurists. He shows great familiarity with modern English, French, and German literature on the civil law, and references are very frequently made to the works of authors such as Cuq, Girard, Karlowa, Krüger, Muirhead. Lenel, Roby, and Teuffel. An instructive table of juristic writers and an excellent index complete the work, which discloses on every page the profound learning and painstaking research of its scholarly author, whose style, though condensed, is always interestingly clear. C. P. S. The Principles of German CIVIL LAW. By Ernest J. Schuster. Oxford. At the Clarendon Press. 1907. pp. xl, 684. 8vo. The new German Empire created by Bismarck was begun on economic principles, was consolidated on the battlefield, and has recently been completed by a great work of legal codification. In 1874, three years after the proclamation of the Empire, a series of committees initiated this enormous task, which was virtually brought to accomplishment by the issue of a series of enactments between 1896 and 1900, of which the chief is the Bürgerlisches Gesetzbuch, or Civil Code. Dr. Schuster, in the present well-produced and well-digested volume, surveys the whole field of the new German civil law on somewhat broad lines. The book may claim, however, to be sometning more than a general guide. Comparisons are constantly drawn between English and German law that might be of real value to students of comparative jurisprudence, especially in this country, where the conflict of state laws is closely akin to the conditions out of which the German codes arose. Many of the devices adopted by the German codifiers merit serious attention by their boldness and legal force. The contents of the book will appear more clearly from a statement of the titles of its parts: General Rules of Law; Creation, Transfer, and Extinction of Rights; Law of Obligations; Rules relating to Particular Kinds of Obligations; Obligations Created Otherwise than by Act-in-the-Law; Law of Things; Family Law; Law of Inheritance. R. M. J. THE INTERNATIONAL LAW AND DIPLOMACY OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR. By Amos S. Hershey. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1906. pp. xii, 394. 8vo. Amid the great mass of literature that has appeared dealing with one phase or another of the great conflict in the Far East between Russia and Japan, it is pleasant to find one book that has some claim to merit. This having been the first great war in the past quarter century, it naturally gave rise to many important questions relating to the rights, duties, and liabilities of neutrals. These questions have been taken up with some fulness in the chapters dealing with "The Construction, Sale, and Exportation by Neutrals of Warships, Submarine Boats, and other Vessels Intended for Belligerent Service”; “Russian Seizures of Neutral Merchantmen — The Right of Visit and Search and the Alleged Right of Sinking Neutral Prizes"; "Questions Relating to Contraband of War": "The Rights and Privileges of Belligerent Armed Vessels in Neutral Ports and Waters ; and some others. Most interesting of all is the chapter entitled "War Correspondents, Wireless Telegraphy, and Submarine Mines," for here Professor Hershey shows how the belligerents met new situations which the rules of international law as developed in other wars failed to cover. These modern inventions clearly call for a remaking of many of the rules of law to fit the warfare of the present day. The book is of value in its suggestions. The author has a clear understanding of his subject, and shows much painstaking effort and careful work in collecting facts. His style is clear and pleasant, and though technical questions of law are considered, it can be read and enjoyed by any well-informed layman. S. H. E. F. SELECT ESSAYS IN ANGLO-American LEGAL HISTORY. By various authors. Compiled and edited by the Association of American Law Schools. In three volumes. Volume I. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. 1907. pp. 846. 8vo. THE LAW OF TORTS. By Melville Madison Bigelow. Eighth Edition. Boston Little, Brown, and Company. 1907. pp. xxv, 502. 8vo. THE PRINCIPLES AND FORMS OF PRACTICE. By Austin Abbott. In two volumes. Second Edition by Carlos C. Alden. New York: Baker, Voorhis and Company. 1907. pp. xiv, 1170; x1, 1171-2317. 8vo. A CODE OF FEDERAL PROCEDURE. By Walter Malins Rose. In three volumes. San Francisco: Bancroft-Whitney Company. 1907. pp. xxx, 3186. 24cm. THE RULES OF PRACTICE IN THE UNITED STATES COURTS. ANNOTATED. A TREATISE ON SUITS IN CHANCERY. By Henry R. Gibson. Second 8vo. HANDBOOK OF THE LAW OF PRIVATE CORPORATIONS. By Wm. L. Clark. A HANDBOOK OF ČORPORATION LAW. By Richard Selden Harvey. New THE LAW OF EVIDENCE. By Sidney L. Phipson. Fourth Edition. Lon don: Stevens and Haynes. 1907. pp. lxxx, 704. 8vo. MILITARY LAW AND THE PROCEDURE OF COURTS MARTIAL. By Edgar S. Dudley. London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd. New York: John Wiley and Sons. 1907. pp. ix, 650. 12mo. PRIVATE PROPERTY IN WAR. By Norman Bentwich. London: Sweet and Maxwell, Ltd. Boston: The Boston Book Company. 1907. pp. 151. 8vo. IMMIGRATION AND ITS EFFECTS UPON THE UNITED STATES. By Prescott F. Hall. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1906. pp. xiii, 393. 8vo. THE LAW OF CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE. By Lewis Hockheimer. Second Edition. Baltimore: The Baltimore Book Company. 1904. pp. 566. 8vo. PROBLEMS OF INTERNATIONAL PRACTICE AND DIPLOMACY, with special reference to the Hague conferences and conventions and other international agreements. By Sir Thomas Barclay. London: Sweet and Maxwell, Ltd. Boston Boston Book Company. 1907. pp. xix, 383. 8vo. THE PUBLIC RECORDS AND THE CONSTITUTION. By Luke Owen Pike. London: Henry Frowde. 1907. pp. 39. 8vo. PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, at its Third Annual Meeting Held at Providence, R. I., December 26 to 29, 1906. Lancaster, Pa.: Wickersham Press. 1907. pp. 258. ACQUIRED UNDER FOREIGN LAW FOR DEATH UPON THE HIGH SEAS.1 II. "O give a right of action for death upon the high seas is certainly In Hughes on Admiralty the learned author, after showing that there was an action for death under the law of France, Holland, Germany, and Scotland, says: 2 "As these countries administer the law substantially the same in all their courts and do not have common law courts with one system and other courts with another system, the doctrine with them applies on land and sea alike. This prevalence of the doctrine among the leading Continental nations would seem to settle that it is at least sufficiently recognized to entitle it, in so far as it may be maritime in nature, to be considered a part of the general body of maritime law as administered by maritime nations. In other words, any other nation that may choose to adopt it into its jurisprudence is not making something maritime that was not maritime before, is not extending the limits of the general maritime law, but is merely drawing from that fountain something that was there already." It should be further noted that as regards the question whether there is any right of action for death, there is no rule belonging specially to the maritime law as such. The question belongs to the general body of the municipal law which regulates the ordinary fundamental rights of person and property on land and sea, and which underlies the maritime law as the basis of its admin 1 Continued from 21 HARV. L. REV. 22. 2 Hughes, Adm., 198. |