quite clear knowledge, are those which he seeks to meet; and one mode which he adopts to effect this is, in condensed sentences, to print in prominent form the salient legal doctrines he desires to enforce. The book is well arranged, supplies a good detail, and, moreover, is a readable one.

CONTEMPORARY FOREIGN LITERATURE.

By Dr. HANS

Die Abkommen der Haager Friedenskonferenzen, der Londoner Seekriegskonferenz, nebst Genfer Konvention. WEHBERG. Berlin, 1910.

Das Seekriegsrecht nach der Londoner Deklaration vom 26 Feb. 1909. By Dr. T. NIEMEYER. Berlin, 1910.

These are useful little handbooks in convenient portable form such as we do not seem to possess in England. The annotations of the respective editors are really explanatory and not too long.

Die Englische Gerichtsverfassung, eine systematische Darstellung. By Dr. H. B. GERLAND, Professor in the University of Jena. Leipsic, 1910.

This learned work, in two large volumes of over a thousand pages, is a favourable example of the increasing attention paid by German jurists to English substantive law and procedure. It is astonishingly complete and accurate, even allowing for the fact that the author expresses his indebtedness to many distinguished English lawyers from the Lord Chief Justice downward. One would have thought a chapter on the local Courts almost impossible for a foreigner, but it has been done and well done.

Das Notariat in San Marino. By Dr. VLADIMIR PAPPAFAVA. Innsbruck, 1910.

A study in a remote byway of law, but very interesting as illustrative of Roman law. The latest recension of the laws of the little republic-about 9,500 inhabitants-was in 1834, and reads like the Novels of Justinian. It is to be noted that there is a special notarius damnorum datorum before whom claims in an action of delict are sworn. Dr. Pappafava gives a bibliography of works on San Marino, but he does not include the late J. T. Bent's A Freak of Freedom (1879), largely founded on J. Dennistoun's Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino (1851).

La Capacità patrimoniale della Donna maritata nel Diritto civile, &c. By ALDO BALDASSARI. Rome, 1910.

The law relating to married women's property is illustrated by comparison of the legal systems of England, Germany, AustriaHungary, Russia, and Switzerland. There is ample recognition of the work of English text-writers.

Sull' Idea di una Scienza del Diritto universale comparato. By Professor G. DEL VECCHIO. Turin, 1909. 2nd Edition.

The first edition of this pamphlet, read at the Heidelberg Philosophical Congress of 1908, has been already noticed. In this edition there are some additions, chiefly of a bibliographical nature. The same writer also sends a brief biography, (Berlin, 1910), of the distinguished Italian jurist Giuseppe D'Aguanno, killed at the early age of 42 in the earthquake at Messina in 1908.

PERIODICALS.

Journal du Droit International Privé. Nos. III-VI. Paris, 1910. There is a suggestive article by MM. Sainson and Cluzel on nationality in China under the law of 1909 (p. 407). M. Théry writes on the difficult question of aërial navigation, basing his views on an article in The American Journal of International Law of January, 1910 (p. 825). Municipal statutes and international conventions are demanded. Among the numerous decisions on other matters space will allow for the notice of only the following. A joint-stock company is registered in England, but its effective direction is in France. The siège social is French (p. 577). The libel case of l'honorable Arthémus Jones is reported at great length (p. 622). A contract made between an Italian seaman and the captain of a foreign ship is regulated by Italian law. In case of

injury the seaman has the remedy given by the Italian statute of 31 Jan. 1904 (p. 669). The cardinalate is a benefice and the temporal Courts of Italy will give effect to the constitution of Sixtus V of 1586 regulating the matter (p. 942).

Zeitschrift für Internationales Recht. Vol. XXII, Nos. 2 and 3. Leipsic, 1910.-There is an interesting sketch of the life and work of Christian von Massenbach, a pioneer of the reform of Criminal law in Germany. Several recent English decisions are cited, always from the Law Times Reports.

Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung. Berlin, Apr.-15 Sept. 1910.Dr. Hein discusses the jurisdiction of the Prussian Heroldsamt,

which, with true German minuteness, is regarded as subjektivöffentliches Recht (p. 398). Kinematographen-Recht is the subject of a book reviewed on p. 490. Professor Gierke contributes an appreciation of Professor Brunner on the occasion of the latter's seventieth birthday (p. 691). A proposal for a statue to Savigny (p. 746) and a complaint of the inadequacy of law libraries, both in number and contents, will nearly exhaust the matters of interest to English readers.

Blätter für vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft und Volkswirtschaftslehre. Berlin, April-July, 1910.-This periodical bears its title in English, French, and Spanish, as well as German, but the contents are wholly German. They are of a kind very similar to those of the Zeitschrift above. Dr. T. Baty reviews three recent English decisions, especially Swifte v. Swifte ([1910], 2 I. R. 140). There is a useful bibliography of recent works dealing with comparative law and political economy, which include many from languages little read in England, such as Russian, Polish, and Portuguese.

La Giustizia Penale. Rome, 3 March-18 Aug. 1910.-Among the numerous decisions the following may be noticed. A witness can apparently refresh his memory from written notes only with the consent of the parties (p. 310). A prosecution for breach of the customs laws-contraband importation of saccharine—prescribes in five years (p. 420). After a bill of exchange has been paid the holder must return it to the drawer. If he decline to do so, he is guilty of the offence of appropriazione indebita (p. 444). Withdrawal by a pledgor of a pledge from the custody of the pledgee gives rise only to a civil action and is not a crime. The law is the same whether or not the pledge is constituted by notarial act (p. 446).

JAMES WILLIAMS.

Books received, reviews of which have been held over owing to want of space:-Palmer's Company Precedents, Part II; Coulson and Forbes' Law of Waters; Oke's Magisterial Formalist; Stubbs and Baxter's Irish Forms and Precedents; Thwaites' Criminal Law and Procedure; M'Caul's Remedies of Vendors and Purchasers; Arnold's Municipal Corporations; Goudy's Trichotomy in Roman Law; Archbold's Criminal Pleading; Jarman on Wills ; Topham's Company Law; Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence; Thwaites' Real and Personal Property; Gore-Browne's Law of Assurance Companies; Carter's Elements of Contract.

Other Publications received :-Butterworths' Quarterly Digests, July and October; Carson's The Genesis of Blackstone's Commentaries; The Union Law Review (South Africa); The Hindustan Review; Haynes' Divorce Problems of to-day; Cotes-Preedy's Legal Relations of Hospital Authorities; Madras Weekly Notes The Cambridge Diary for the Academical Year (Cambridge University Press); King's The Liability of the United States for use of Patented Inventions.

THE

LAW MAGAZINE AND REVIEW.

No. CCCLIX.—FEBRUARY, 1911.

I. THE NEED FOR CODIFYING THE LAW OF ENGLAND.

"OF

F the laws of England:" wrote Sir Francis Bacon, "I have commended them before for the matter, but surely they ask much amendment for the form; which to reduce and perfect I hold to be one of the greatest doweries that can be conferred upon this Kingdom." The lapse of three hundred years has made but little change in the position of affairs, and were Bacon writing in the year 1911 he might let the passage go without alteration of a word, save that some might think it expressed too mildly. For the enormous increase in the bulk of the English law which has taken place during the last hundred years greatly accentuates the defects of its form. "Chaos tempered by Fisher's Digest," as some epigrammatist described it, remains substantially an accurate representation of its condition.

Roughly speaking, the law of England is contained in the Acts of Parliament from the reign of Henry III to the present time, and the decisions of the superior courts of justice commencing with the Year Books and continuing to the present day. The Acts of Parliament are to be found in the Statutes at Large, of which Ruff head's edition is contained in eighteen large quarto volumes. This, however, only includes the statutes down to the forty-first year of George III, i.e., 1800. But the work was continued by

various editors for the period between that date and the year 1869, making twenty-nine volumes more, or thirty including the index volume. To these must be added one volume, issued by the King's Printers, for each of the succeeding years, making eighty-seven volumes in all down to the end of 1909. These volumes contain only the public general Acts and not local or personal Acts, except that, down to the year 1798, the great majority of Acts now classed as local were included among the public Acts.1

Many of these enactments have been wholly or in part repealed, or have spent their force, and an edition of the statutes revised so as to exclude repealed and obsolete matter was officially published in 1878, a second edition being issued in 1886 which has been continued to the year 1900. This second edition of the statutes, revised with the supplements, is contained in twenty royal octavo volumes, and gives all public general Acts of Parliament from the commencement of the reign of Henry III down to the year 1900, which had not been repealed at the date of the publication of each volume. Adding the ten volumes necessary to bring the compilation down to date the smallest compass in which the Statute-law can be found is thirty large octavo volumes.

The decisions of the Superior Courts of Justice which are reckoned as establishing law are contained in an infinitely larger number of books. A very eminent authority, Sir Frederick Pollock, reckoned that down to the end of the year 1895 the volumes of reports are something over eighteen hundred, if we count English reports alone. But it is often necessary to refer to decisions of

1 Ilbert, Legislative Methods and Forms, p. 28. Some of the earliest enactments are of doubtful authenticity as statutes, ibid., p. 22.

2 Sir Frederick Pollock, First Book of Jurisprudence, p. 295. That the figures here given are within this mark is confirmed by the fact that in The Lawyers' Reference Book, published by Sweet & Maxwell, Ltd., in 1907, references are given to just over 2,500 volumes of reports of cases in the Superior Courts in England and Wales.