Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 19.pdf/327

 300

THE GREEN BAG

CURRENT

LEGAL

LITERATURE

This department is designed to call attention to the articles in all the leading legalperiodicals of the preceding month and to new law books sent us for review. Conducted by William C. Gray, of Fall River, Mass. Constitutional law, labor questions, and the ever-present discussion of the imperfect procedure of the law, receive much attention in the legal articles reviewed this month. The growing tendency to give what would formerly have been considered strictly judicial functions to the executive, is ascribed by Roscoe Pound to the impatience of our practical people with the law's delays and technicalities; and Hannis Taylor blames the same defects in the criminal law for the prevalence of lynching. In the department of consti tutional law a timely article by S. S. Gregory discusses the constitutionality of national regulation of the liability of interstate carriers for accidents to employers. Jeremiah Smith concludes his valuable series of articles on labor litigation, and Frank W. Grinnell has written an interesting analysis of the value of a labor union's contract with an employer who agrees to the " closed shop." Edward H. Warren's examination of de facto corpora tions, and Samuel B. Clarke's analysis of the Armstrong committee's legislation on insur ance, are of much interest in their special fields. BILLS AND NOTES. " Fictitious or NonExisting Payee," by J. D. Falconbridge, Canada Law Journal (V. xliii, p. 225). BILLS AND NOTES. " Some Suggestions on the Proposal to Enact the ' Uniform Nego tiable Instruments Law ' " in Illinois, by Julian W. Mack, Illinois Law Review (V. i, P- 592)BIOGRAPHY. "Benjamin Franklin Graves," by Hoyt Post in the April Michigan Law Review (V. v, p. 409)- Concluding the series of biographical sketches of four noted Michigan Supreme Court judges. BIOGRAPHY. " Sir Walter Scott as an Advocate," by R. A. B. Scottish Law Review (V. xxiii, p. 109). CONSPIRACY. "The Results Flowing from the Extinction of the Civil Action for Conspiracy," by Robert L. McWilliams, Cen tral Law Journal (V. Ixiv, p. 266). CONSPIRACY. " Conspiracy as a Crime and as a Tort," by Francis M. Burdick, in the April Columbia Law Review (V. vii, p. 229), examines many cases. The positions taken are that as conspiracy is a crime " apart from any criminal act which the conspirators have in view when forming the confederation, it . . . does not merge in any crime perpe trated by the conspirators while ^carrying

out their agreed scheme;" and that anyone damaged by a conspiracy should have an action in tort of which the distinctive feature "is the conspiracy, rather than the species of harm inflicted." . CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (Acquisition and Control of Territory). An historical exami nation of the theories and decisions relating to "Acquisition and Government of National Domain," by David K. Watson, appears in the March-April American Law Review (V. xli, p. 239). The author's summing up of the result of the decisions on the controverted question of the control over acquired terri tory is as follows: "Foreign territory acquired by the United States is subject to three classifications: First, territory which is incorporated into the United States. This is subject to the provi sions of the Constitution, and its people are entitled to its benefits, including the Bill of Rights, commonly known as the first ten amendments. Second, territory which is not incorporated into the United States, but which may be regarded as outlying territory. This is subject to be governed by Congress under the powers granted in the Constitution applic able to such territory, not necessarily includ ing all the provisions of the Bill of Rights, but subject to such limitations upon Congressional