Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 22.pdf/280

 262

The Green Bag Crime and Criminal Law

A 'udge was forced recently, under the laws of ew Jersey, to send a boy ten years of age to prison for debt, bein unable to ﬁnd any loophole in the law. T e boy's friends obtained his release from prison nding an appeal to the Supreme Court of t e state by ‘mg a bond for twice the amount of the judgment. An unusual number of highway robberies and murders in Rhode Island has led to an agitation for the re-establishment of the death penalty, which was abolished in 1852, and 6.

ill has been introduced in the legislature with this object.

In Iowa and Colorado, where

capital punishment had been abolished, it was restored, while in Maine and Rhode Island the number of homicides in proportion to population has been from two to six times as great as in death penalty states. Dr. Andrew D. White recently asserted that “human life is so cheap in the United States that men and women may be mur dered almost with impunity. There has been in this country a stead increase in the num ber of criminal homici es. Twenty-ﬁve years ago there were about ﬁfteen hundred homicides yearly in the United States. There are now eight thousand every year. Statistics make plain two illuminating facts: First, that Bel gium, which is the highest, has no death penalty. In Canada, which is the lowest, seven-eighths of the men tried for murder were punished, generally with death. The admimstration of criminal law in this country has become a game between two or three lawyers, and the whole thing is very much of a farce."

that Brunner, in his monumental “History of German Law," has cleared up man important and previously obscure points in nglo-Saxon and in Anglo-Norman law, and that before the appearance of this work he had shown, in a now famous little book, the origin of the English jury system. No reader of Maitland or of Thayer or of Ames is ignorant of the debt which English legal history owes to Brunner. It is hoped that American lawyers and other Americans who are interested in legal history will largely embrace this oppor tunity to do honor, during his life, to one of the most eminent of living scholars. Since the value of the testimonial will depend far more on the number of subscribers than on the amount of their subscriptions, it is hoped that no one who wishes to contribute will hesitate to send a small sum. By direction of the German committee, American contri butions are to be sent to Professor Munroe Smith, Columbia University, New York City.

Miscellaneous The fourth annual meeting of the Society of International Law is to be held at Wash ington, D. C., April 28-30. Gov. Hughes Feb. I? signed the Conklin bill, removing restrictions preventing the erection of a new Court House for New York County in City Hall Park. The site which Mayor Gaynor desires,

is,

however,

being

strongly opposed by the bar, by architects, and by the press. In order to investigate the causes of the delay in the administration of justice in the courts of San Francisco, President Curtis H. Lindley of the Bar Association of San Fran cisco has appointed a committee of live to look into the matter and suggest remedies.

Testimonial lo a Leading German jurist Heinrich Brunner, Professor of Law in the

University of Berlin, will celebrate on June 21, 1910, his seventieth birthday. A committee of prominent German jurists has been formed to assure due recognition, on this anniversary, of Brunner's achievements as teacher and as writer. It is proposed to publish, as is cus tomary on suc occasions, a volume of essays prepared in his honor by his colleagues and ormer pupils, and also to raise a fund for a permanent memorial. In view of the fact that Brunner's researches in early German law and in the law of the Frank Empire have direct bearing upon the legal histo of all the West-European states, including 1Ii’ng land, and that the results attained by him have been of the greatest value to French,

Italian and English legal historians, it has seemed proper to 've to the lawyers and his torical students 0 all these countries and of the United States an opportunity to con tribute to the memorial fund. All American lawyers and historians who are familiar with the development of legal history during the last forty years are aware

Only 82, or thirty-three per cent of the 240 a plicants for admission to the bar, passed t e recent examination held in Boston. The low rcentage is partly due to the higher stan ard which has now been set for entrance,

requiring more thorough preparation in gen eral studies as well as in knowledge of the law. At the annual meetin of the Connecticut Probate Assembly, held ch. 9, the following

officers were elected: President, L. P. Waldo of Hartford; ﬁrst vice-president, W. H. Burn~ ham of Hamton; second vice~president, H. H. Woodman of Bethel; secretary and treasurer,

Joseph B. Banning of Deep River. There was a discussion on the fees paid judges of probate. Cumberland County, Me., has now a new Court House in Portland, considered the ﬁnest in Maine, which cost $850,000. Its

erection consumed four and one half years. The building was formally opened Feb. 1, Hon. Charles F. Libby saying: “It stands as a