charged with being an obstruction to needed social advance. The blame which should fall upon the careless draftsman of the law too often is shifted to the court. But even if the bill stand the test of constitutionality, if it is not well drawn, it fails to accomplish its purpose. American legislation furnishes examples without number of laws which are weak or altogether powerless. Those who draft the statutes are prone to forget that a declaratory law is usually a nullity, and if any rule is to be enforced, adequate administrative machinery must be provided. The object of this book is to outline the means by which these defects may be avoided. Most of our texts on statutes confine their attention to the interpretations given by the courts. We need not only an understanding of the standards which must be observed under the constitutions, but a knowledge of the means which may be used to increase the definiteness of the law and the efficiency of its enforcement. The study of our constitutions is so important, and with the increase in size of our state constitutions has tended to become so absorbing, that we are apt to forget that after all the constitution is "the frame of government, not its living substance. It is only the point from which the statutes start in the attempt to insure the fullest life to the citizen. It is increasingly true in our generation that the test of good or bad government lies in the nature of the statute law and its enforcement. There is no subject more worthy of study than the means by which we can insure that the standards of conduct which our laws enjoin shall be clearly stated and efficiently enforced. A study of the problems of statute law as illustrated by the work of the Wisconsin legislature and questions raised by my students in the course on Theory and Practice of Legislation form the background from which this book is written. Many of the illustrations are drawn from the practical difficulties which confront the legislative draftsman, others have been brought out by the theoretical questions arising in class discussions. By both these influences the point of view has been largely shaped. To Dr. Charles McCarthy, head of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library, I am indebted for constant counsel and criticism during the writing of these chapters. His long and intimate association with lawmaking in Wisconsin has given him a wealth of political experience and insight which he was always ready to place at my service. I am under obligation to the officers of the State Law Library for numerous favors extended by them, and to Mr. Raymond M. Zillmer, Assistant in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, who has criticized the manuscript and verified the references. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, WISCONSIN. CHESTER LLOYD JONES. A SELECT LIST OF BOOKS ON STATUTE LAW Anson, Sir W. R. Law and Custom of the Constitution. 2 vols. Oxford. 1896. Beal, Edward. Cardinal Rules of Legal Interpretation. London. 1808. Bedwell, C. E. A., Ed. The Legislation of the Empire. 4 vols. London. 1909. Bentham, Jeremy. Theory of Legislation. 2 vols. Boston, 1840. Bentham, Jeremy. Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. London. 1823. Binney, Charles Chauncey. Restrictions upon Local and Special Black, Henry Campbell. Handbook on the Construction and Interpretation of the Laws. St. Paul, Minn. 1911. Brown, W. Jethro. The Underlying Principles of Modern Legislation. London. 1912. Coode, George. On Legislative Expression. Philadelphia. 1848. Cooley, Thomas M. A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations. Boston. 1903. Craies, William Feilden. A Treatise on Statute Law. London. 1906. Dealey, James Quayle. Our State Constitutions. Philadelphia. 1907. Dickinson, Reginald. Summary of the Constitution and Procedure of Foreign Parliaments. London. 1890. Dwarris, Fortunatus (Potter's Ed.). Treatise on Statutes. Albany. Commentaries on the Interpretation of Statutes. Gilfry, Henry H. Precedents, Decisions on Points of Order with Phraseology in the United States Senate. Washington. 1909. Hinds, Asher C. Digest and Manual of the Rules and Practice of the House of Representatives of the United States. Washington. Hinds, Asher C. Hinds' Precedents of the House of Representatives of the United States. 8 vols. Washington. 1907. Ilbert, Sir Courtenay. Legislative Methods and Forms. Oxford. 1901. Ilbert, Sir Courtenay. Methods of Legislation. London. 1912. Lieber, Francis. Legal and Political Hermeneutics, or Principles of Interpretation and Construction in Law and Politics. St. Louis. 1880. McCarthy, Charles. The Wisconsin Idea. New York. 1912. McConachie, Lauros G. Congressional Committees. New York. 1898. Maxwell, Peter Benson. Interpretation of Statutes (4th ed.). London, 1905. Reinsch, Paul Samuel. American Legislatures and Legislative Methods. New York. 1907. Sedgwick, Theodore (2d ed.). Rules which Govern the Interpretation and Construction of Statutory and Constitutional Law. New York. 1874. Sutherland, J. G. Statutes and Statutory Construction. 2 vols. Chicago. 1904. Thring, Lord Henry. Practical Legislation. Boston. 1902. Wilberforce, Edward. Statute Law. London. 1881. Willard, Ashton R. A Legislative Handbook. Boston. 1890. Manual of Procedure in the Public Business of the House of Commons. Third ed. London. 1912. Senate Manual containing the Standing Rules and Orders of the United States Senate. Washington. 1909. |