Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/419

 THE GREEN BAG CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. The American Constitution. Lowell Institute Lectures, by Frederic Jesup Stimson. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1908. These lectures, although addressed to a general audience, are of interest to lawyers. The assumption made by the author is that the reader is not a stranger to the provisions of the Constitution of the United States and to their history and purpose. Merely elementary matters are consequently omitted, and the author devotes attention to less obvious dis cussion, often dealing pointedly with current questions. The result is necessarily a book that occasionally conflicts with the views of many readers and that certainly cannot be read by any one without profit. The volume must not be confused with one by the same author, appearing almost simul taneously, and bearing a similar name, "Federal and State Constitutions of the United States." CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. "The Law of the State and Federal Constitutions of the United States," by F. J. Stimson. The Bos ton Book Co., Boston, 1908. (Price, $3.50.) The writing of this book required vast and careful research. The greater part of the volume is a comparative view of the impor tant provisions in the constitutions of the several states. Here, for example, one finds a condensation of the various provisions as to eminent domain, the right of suffrage, and taxation, with verbatim extracts whenever necessary. This part is a revision of the con stitutional division of the author's American Statute Law. Another part shows minutely, with the aid of a very .ingenious diagram, the division of national and state powers. An other part gives an historical digest, in chro nological order, covering English social legis lation from the time of the Conquest. An other part gives verbatim, with an arrange ment according to topics, the constitutional principles protecting personal liberties and private rights as expressed in constitutional documents from Magna Charta through the Constitution of the United States; and herein one can trace the very words that have, from time to time, embodied approximately the same ideas. The parts already described are in dispensable to any one interested in the com parison or the history of constitutional pro

visions; and no one not interested in such topics can appreciate the labor represented by these pages and the extent to which they aid future investigators. Prefixed to these valuable condensations of materials are eleven chapters in which the author, in the light of the researches condensed in the other parts of the volume, gives some of his own con clusions, chiefly showing the historical devel opment of constitutional principles. The titles of these chapters are : Introductory; The Right to Law; The Right of Liberty; Chan cery and the Injunction Order; The Right to Labor and Trade; The Right to Property; Other Constitutional Rights; Rights of Gov ernment; Government Organization; Fed eral and State Powers; and The State Constitution. The volume is devoted to the constitutions themselves as distinguished from the de cisions under them. It is prepared, as the author explains, not "so much for lawyers as for students. Yet no lawyer in investigating a question of either state or federal constitu tional law should neglect to examine these pages. Here he is likely to find comparative or historical matter showing how the same topic has been treated in other jurisdictions or at other times; and even if he finds no such matter he will have ascertained that the phraseology with which he has to deal is unique and hence probably the subject of judicial decision in only one locality. As state constitutions are too much neglected, this volume deserves praise for en couraging the study of them. It is equally useful in studying federal questions. The diagram of state and federal powers has been spoken of already; but it deserves to be spoken of again, for it is extremly enlighten- ing, and, as the author well says, " if the reader of this book will take the diagram and carefully, for himself, decide (for on some clauses there may be a difference of opinion) just what sentences or sections of the Con stitution, or matters or powers mentioned, therein, fall within each of these nine divi sions of our sphere of the total powers of government, he will almost, by the very studv required, the close examination of the Con stitution necessary, become a good American constitutional lawyer." He adds that nianv decisions of the Supreme Court have done