Page images
PDF
EPUB

Act, 1899, extending the powers of the Court over both young persons and adults under certain circumstances, should have been included. The fact that a book has reached its thirty-seventh edition is a proof that it supplies a want felt by some section of the public, but we do not think that section includes professional lawyers.

CONTEMPORARY FOREIGN LITERATURE.
PERIODICALS.

Criminalogia Moderna. (1899, 1900. Nos. 11-15.) Buenos Aires. This review dealing with criminal law and practice is permeated with the psychological influence of Lombroso and his followers. The South American Republics analyze crime instead of repressing it. One wonders what the practical good sense of a Bramwell or a Hawkins would have said to some of the views enunciated in these pages, for instance, to the definition of a criminal not as one who does something wrong, but as one who is deficient in certain necessary sentiments. The only collaborators from English-speaking countries are Dr. Alderman, of Melbourne, and Dr. Steevens, of Boston. A Referendum Juridico set on foot by the editors is noticeable as showing the questions which they regard as of most pressing importance in Argentina. The prominent ones are whether the country is ripe for trial by jury, and whether proceedings should ever be in camera. To these questions the answer is promised in a future number after the close of the referendum. The interest taken in criminal law in South America is shown by the projected congress of jurists to be held at Rio on the 3rd of May, in celebration of the fourth centenary of the discovery of Brazil. English lawyers will wish them every success. The suitability of the Spanish language for legal expression is shown by several terms and phrases in the articles of these numbers; dismaternidad is a good example. An Englishman would have to use several words in order to translate this expressive word.

Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung. Bi-Monthly. 1 Jan.-1 Apr. 1900. Berlin. Like other German legal periodicals this is full of the new Code, and even the advertisements are of little else than editions and commentaries on the whole or parts of it. Herr Ernst von Wildenbruch even breaks into song over it, and his verses on Das deutsche Recht are by no means unpoetical, the subject considered.

O Deutschland, Du in Kampf vereint und Schlacht,
Und nun geeint durch Rechtes Friedensmacht.

An article on juristic mathematics is hardly convincing. The case of division of the estate of a deceased testator is taken, and the share of one of the sons is represented by the complicated formula—

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

La Guistizia Penale. Weekly. 5 December, 1899-19 March, Rome.

1900.

Some of the reported decisions are interesting as being characteristic of the country. Poverty is indicated by numerous decisions on dazio consumo, or tolls on commodities. The tollette dannose of Dante are by no means extinct in modern Italy. The courts appear to have been occupied more than once with the curious offence of pascolo abusivo, or pasture by trespass, a crime apparently only in the island of Sardinia. Decisions which could hardly have been given in England are those that a parte civile may be condemned in costs, and that in a charge of corrupting a juror it is unnecessary to prove that the juror voted in accordance with the views of the corrupter.

Brussels.

Revue Générale. (January-March, 1900.) Revue Bibliographique Belge. (November, 1899-February, 1900.) Brussels.

These reviews contain a few notices of foreign law-books of little interest to an English lawyer, with perhaps one exception. This is a book by Mijnheer De Haan, published at Amsterdam under the name of Losse Schetsen over het Notariat in de Z. A. Republiek. From this we learn that the Transvaal notary is always a Hollander, and that notarial business is so scanty that every notary is something else as well. This duplication of duties is, however, not peculiar to the South African Republic.

Journal du Droit International Privé. (1899. Nos. XI. and XII.) Paris.

The case of the greatest interest to English lawyers is that of Major Spilsbury, reported at considerable length. In Société de Sombreffe v. Henderson and Greenwood the Cour d'Appel of Liège held that a judgment of the High Court of Justice in England in the nature of a simple exequatur of a Belgian judgment had no legal effect beyond England. One of the features of this valuable. periodical is the annual bibliography of works on international law. For 1899 it is as good and complete as ever.

Rivista Politica e Letteraria. January-March, 1900. Rome. In an article on the South African War (Anglo-Boera is the Italian phrase), an anonymous writer takes a view differing from that of most Continental jurists. England is fighting for justice and equality, and will win, and so become a great military power. Accordingly her alliance will be all the more valuable for Italy. On account of their concurrent interests in the Mediterranean, such an alliance, says another anonymous writer, is inevitable.

Kosmodike. December, 1899-March, 1900. Berlin.

An interesting feature is a reprint of Gambetta's earliest forensic speech, a characteristic defence before a police magistrate at Paris in 1862. There are several articles by Englishmen, His Honour Judge Raikes writes on the Buffalo Conference, and Mr. C. M. Atkinson on the procedure in Police Courts. There is also a review of Professor Westlake's lecture on the Transvaal War.

JAMES WILLIAMS.

SOME WORKS OF REFERENCE.

The Literary Year-Book and Bookman's Directory. Edited by HERBERT MORRAH. London: George Allen. 1900.-The present issue contains a large amount of material gathered from various sources, and arranged in a form differing in many essential respects from the volumes which have preceded it. The first part of the work is a general record of the literary work of the year 1899. The Editor points out that only one section of this part is critical, and that objection has been raised to the inclusion of any matter of a critical nature in a book which contains statistical details. On the other hand, there are those who think it reasonable that a book of this kind should deal with literature in an intelligent spirit. The answer to the question thus raised, naïvely remarks the Editor, is given by those who are particularly well qualified to speak for themselves, and he refers his readers to what is actually written in the book on the subject.

The second part is alphabetically arranged, and a large amount of information added to every section, making the book a most valuable work of reference to every one engaged or interested in literary pursuits. The previous Editor, Mr. Joseph Jacobs, having surrendered the general supervision of the book owing to the pressure of important work, his mantle has descended on Mr. Morrah, who as time goes on, and with the assistance of all concerned with books, hopes to make the Year-Book grow until at length the whole of the wide literary field shall be covered. To be useful, however, the book must be accurate as well as comprehensive, and we take this opportunity of pointing out to the Editor that a list of legal publications, such as that to be found on page 338, is distinctly misleading and incomplete without the name of this magazine, which is at once the leading and the oldest journal of jurisprudence in existence.

The "Shipping World" Year-Book, 1900. Edited by MAJOR JONES. London: "Shipping World" Office. Pp. 1184. (Price 5s.)-Several new and important features have been included in the present volume, among which may be noted

the rules governing the loading of turret-deck vessels, the medical scale adopted by the Board of Trade for merchant and passenger ships, the output of the world's shipyards during 1899, and digests of recent Merchant Shipping Acts.

The Board of Trade regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, the Carriage of Grain Act, the Surrender of Deserters Abroad, and all other important regu lations affecting shipping, are included in this edition, and the Tariffs of all Nations and the Port and Harbour Directories have been revised right up to the hour of printing. The map, by Mr. J. G. Bartholomew, accompanying the book has been enlarged and still further improved. The work is undoubtedly the handiest book of reference on shipping matters, and is indispensable to those interested in commerce, navigation, and maritime law.

Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench. 1900. London: Dean & Son, Ltd.-This volume, the 34th annual, is in every way an admirable work. In the Parliamentary section, biographies of all members are given. Results of polling at the last two General Elections, an abridged Peerage, a list of Privy Councillors, and an explanation of Technical Parliamentary Expressions, are also included in this section, as well as much other information useful to the politician. In the judicial section of the work are now included particulars of the Judges of the Superior and County Courts of the United Kingdom, Recorders, Metropolitan and Stipendiary Magistrates, etc.

The Newspaper Press Directory and Advertisers' Guide, 1900 (55th year). London: C. Mitchell & Co.-In this volume, journalists, advertisers, and all who are engaged in literary work will find the latest reliable information concerning the Press in all parts of the world. All the matter is thoroughly up to date, and the work is certainly to be considered as the standard book of reference with respect to the newspaper press.

Received too late for notice in this issue :- -Russell on Arbitration (Stevens & Sons, Ltd.); The Law of Animals, by JOHN H. INGHAM (T. & J. W. Johnson & Co., Philadelphia); SHIRLEY'S Leading Cases in Common Law, by RICHARD WATSON, LL.B. (Stevens & Sons, Ltd.); The Law of Bailments, by E. BEAL, B.A. (Butterworth & Co.).

Other publications received :-Bentham and the Codifiers (Harvard Law Review); Appendix to Privy Council Practice; English Common Law in Early American Colonies (University of Wisconsin); La Revue Légale; State Library Bulletin (University of New York); Report of the 22nd Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association; Notes on the Law of Territorial Expansion; The Humane Review; Report of the London Conference, 1899, on Shipowner's Liability.

The Law Magazine and Review receives or exchanges with the following amongst other publications:-Review of Reviews, Juridical Review, Public Opinion, Law Times, Law Journal, Justice of the Peace, Law Quarterly Review, Irish Law Times, Australian Law Times, Speaker, Accountants' Journal, North American Review, Canada Law Journal, Chicago Legal News, American Law Review, Harvard Law Review, Case and Comment, Green Bag, Virginia Law Register, American Lawyer, Albany Law Journal, Madras Law Journal, Calcutta Weekly Notes, Law Notes, Queensland Law Journal, Law Students' Journal, Westminster Review, Concord, Bombay Law Reporter, Medico-Legal Journal, Indian Review, Kathiawar Law Reports, The Lawyer.

CA

[blocks in formation]

I

I-SOLICITORS AND REFORM.

HAVE been asked to express my views on the subject of those reforms which are necessary for the advantage of the solicitors' branch of the legal profession. At the head of them all I would place the alteration of the bye-laws of the Incorporated Law Society in such a way as to enable any fairly strong minority of the members to elect their own candidate on the Council. This should be done by means of a cumulative vote. Each member of the Society ought to be allowed to have as many votes as there are members for election, and to bestow the whole of these votes on one candidate, or distribute them among the candidates in such manner as he desires. The immediate result of this reform would be to break up what is known as the "Lincoln's Inn Ring," that close clique which the late chairman of the Discipline Committee, and one of the most notable members of it, once, I believe, described as the "Bond of Brotherhood." When the members at large are fairly represented on the Council, and the present system which practically amounts to the election of the nominees of the clique is done away with, reforms will be immediately easy and possible.

Much point has been made lately of the fact that only

« PreviousContinue »