Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/67

 THE GREEN BAG

CURRENT LEGAL LITERATURE Thii department it designed to call attention to the articles in all the leading legal periodicals of the preceding month and to new law books sent usfor review

Conducted by WILLIAM C. GRAY, of Fall River, Mass. Articles on constitutional law appearing in several of the magazines indicate that their constituency is taking a very deep interest in that subject. Legal education also attracts attention this month, three articles dealing with various features of it. Professor Wurts' address shows that the text -book advocates do not believe they have been driven from the field by the case-book. Professor Kales, however, assumes that the merits of text-book and case-book are no longer an issue and goes on to stir up controversy over the next step in the evolution of the case-book. His article and Professor Wambaugh's adverse comment make an interesting discussion. ADMIRALTY. (Action for Death on the High Seas.) " Enforcement of a Right of Action Acquired under Foreign Law for Death upon the High Seas," by G. Philip Wardner, Harvard Law Review (V. xxi, p. 75). Conclusion of an article begun in the previous number and noted in the December GREEN BAG. BIOGRAPHY. " Pelatiah Webster — The, Architect of Our Federal Constitution," by Hannis Taylor, Yale Law Journal (V. xvii, p. 73). " All the world," says Mr. Taylor, "understands in a vague and general way that certain path-breaking principles entered into the structure of our second Federal Constitu tion of 1789, which differentiate it from all other systems of federal government that have preceded it. M. de Tocqueville gave formal expression to that understanding when he said: ' This constitution, which may at first be confounded with federal constitutions that have preceded it, rests in truth upon a wholly novel theory which may be considered a great discovery in modern political science.'" The credit for originating this wholly novel theory Mr. Taylor claims for Pelatiah Webster, a Philadelphia merchant born at Lebanon, Conn., in 1725, and graduated at Yale College in 1746. In 1783 he published at Philadelphia, "A Dissertation on the Political Union and Constitution of the United States of North America," which is declared to contain the first expression by any one of the four novel ideas which differentiate our federal system from all which have preceded it. These ideas are: (i) a federal government operating directly on the citizen instead of upon the

state as a corporation; (2) the division of the federal head into three departments, legisla tive, executive and judicial; (3) the division of a one-chamber federal assembly into two chambers; (4) the principle that all powers not specially delegated to the federal govern ment are reserved to the states. Mr. Taylor declares that the four plans presented to the convention embodying these ideas had simply taken the theory expressed by this pamphlet. A memorial embodying these facts is to be presented to Congress dur ing the present session in order to call public attention to the achievement of the author of the pamphlet of 1783. BIOGRAPHY. " Lord Young," by the Hon. Lord (Chas. J.) Guthrie, The Juridical Review (V. xix, p. 209). An appreciation of the eminent Scotch judge, who died last May. BIOGRAPHY. " Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh," by George B. Young, The Juri dical Review (V. xix, p. 266). A short account of the able Scotch lawyer of the seventeenth century who as King's Advocate earned the title of " The Bloody Mackenzie," by his prosecution of the Covenanters. CONFLICT OF LAWS (Nationality in Turkey.) "De 1'AutoriW Compe'tente pour Statuer en Turquife sur les Questions Relatives a la Nationalit6 et des Conflits de Lois en Matiere de Nationality," by E. R. Salem, Revue de Droit International Prive (V. Ill, p. 654). Conclu sion of a discussion of the proper tribunal to decide questions of nationality in Turkey and of questions of conflict of laws relating thereto.