Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/713

 REVIEWS 697

The Police Power Public Policy and Constitutional Rights. By ERNST FREUND, Professor of Jurisprudence and Public Law in the University of Chicago. Chicago: Callaghan & Co., 1904. Pp. xcii-f 819.

Until the appearance of Professor Freund's book, the discus- sion of the police power was confined to two distinct classes of treatises ; on the one hand, the legal textbooks intended to guide the practicing lawyer in the conduct of litigation ; on the other hand, the general treatises on political science. The legal works dealing with this subject show but few differences in method of treatment. With the increase of adjudicated cases, there has been corre- sponding increases in the bulk of these volumes, but they have all failed to give us a broad treatment of the subject.

In the general treatises on political science we find the police power occupying a position of increasing importance. Burgess, in his work on Political Science and Comparative Constitutional Law makes the police power the central feature of his discussion of individual liberty.

Students of this subject have realized for some time past that the most fruitful discussion of the police power would come with the combination of the distinctly legal and the broader political methods of treatment. Dr. Freund has accomplished this difficult task with a degree of success which places us in possession of a work indispensable alike to the student of political science and to the practicing lawyer.

No other principle in constitutional law has played so important a part as the police power. Through it the courts have been able to adapt our federal and state constitutions to the changing economic and political needs of the country. It has made possible such adjustment without the necessity of constitutional amend- ments. The courts have furthermore used this doctrine to protect the people against the shortsightedness or extravagance of their own representative assemblies. Its most important function, how- ever, has been to prevent the injurious assertion of private rights as against public welfare. Through its influence the courts have been able to counteract to a certain degree the strong individualistic tendencies of our American communities. In fact, the history of the police power in the United States mirrors with a considerable degree of accuracy the gradual curbing of the intense individualism