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THE GREEN BAG

CURRENT LEGAL LITERATURE TMt department is dttigntd to call attention to the articles in all the leading legal periodicals of the preceding month and to new law books sent us for review

Conducted by WILLIAM C. GRAY, of Fall River, Mass. Among the articles of general interest to students of the law and its tendencies noted in this department this month special attention may well be. given to Professor Bohlen's examination into the question of how far the law recognizes the moral duty to aid others as a basis of tort liability, Judge Schofield's discussion of the means of attaining uniformity of law in America, and Mr. John B. Sanborn's discussion of recent legislative tendencies. In narrower fields of inquiry there is the usual wide range of articles of merit on technical questions. ADMIRALTY. * Jurisdiction in Salvage Cases," by James D. Dewell, Jr. Yale Law Journal (V. xvii, p. 513). ADMIRALTY (Salvage). "Maritime Sal vage and Chartered Freight," by H. Birch Sharpe. Law Quarterly Review (V. xxiv, p. 206). Answering the negative to following question : "When a ship under charter proceeding in ballast to an outward port, there to load and bring back a specified cargo, is rescued from danger under circumstances which entitle her rescuer to rank as a salvor in the courts of this country, can the salvor make good claim for remuneration in respect of the freight then in course of being earned under the charter party?" AGENCY. " The Execution of Sealed In struments by an Agent," by Floyd R. Mecham. Michigan Law Review (V. vi, p. 552). BANKING. " The German Bourse Law," by G. Plochman. May North American Review (V.iSy; p. 742). BIBLIOGRAPHY. "The Library," by Charles Morse. Canadian Law Times and Review (V. xxviii, p. 300). BIOGRAPHY. The second volume of "Great American Lawyers " John Winston & Co., Philadelphia, 1908, is devoted to the judges and advocates who laid the founda tions of our common law and our consti tutional law at the beginning of the last century. Marshall and Tilghman represent the judges who dealt with constitutional questions. Luther Martin and William Pinkney were the advocates and William

Wirt the Attorney-General who argued the early cases that now 'are our constitutional precedents. On the other hand, Parsons, Swift, Boyle, and Martin established on firm foundations the Supreme Courts in their respective jurisdictions, and adapted to the needs of this country the principles of English common law, especially relating to real prop erty and the rights of the individual. Gould and Kent, although they also participated in the work of the courts, are remembered chiefly as expounders of the law. Gould was the central figure in the first law school in the country, at Litchfield, Conn. Kent, after establishing the first Court of Chancery in this country, made our first orderly pres entation of the common law as well as of international and constitutional law through his lectures at Columbia and especially through his Commentaries. His enthusiastic biographer claims for him the first rank in American jurisprudence. The biography 'of Marshall is perhaps the most interesting of all, both because of the personal charm of the subject and the importance of his work; it shows us Marshall not only as the great statesman of the bench, but as the leading practicing lawyer in Richmond at the begin ning of the century. The local interest at taching to the others will give to each reader his own special preference. The biographies are as follows: Luther Martin by Ashley Mulgrave Gould, Theophilus Parsons by Frank Gaylord Cook, Zephaniah Swift by Simeon E. Baldwin, William Tilghman by Horace Stern, William Pinkney by Alfred Salem Niles, John