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The Green Bag

Ames, James Barr.

23 Harvard Law Re

view (Mar.).

_ The March issue of the Haward Law Review is a memorial number devoted to expressions of the affection of the faculty and present and former students for the late Dean Ames. President-Emeritus Charles W. Eliot writes (p. 323): "Ames's influence as a professor and

as Dean was much increased by another of his

moral attributes——he was always gentle of speech, quiet in manner, attentive to the person who was addressing him, and fully alive to the honorable requirements of the situa tion. Under all circumstances he was a gentleman, and a man of good will." _Professor Joseph H. Beale, discussing "His Life and Character," says (pp. 326-7) : “For ears he examined each number of the Nationa Reporter System as it appeared, and noted every case in which he was interested on a slip of paper. . . . His colleagues fre quently remonstrated with him for spending so much time in merely collectin authorities and printing them in notes; but

e said that

they were on his mind, and he must print them to get rid of them. . . . "He promised his colleagues again and again to give up the making of case-books and get down to serious work—after just one more. But in spite of this desire for serious scholarly work, he gave up his time without a murmur, deliberately and understandingly, to his administrative tasks." Professor Samuel Willison, writing of “His

so it came to pass that his social conscience. his lofty conception of personal obligation, his legal ideals have become a part of the living creed of hundreds of strong men who have gone out from his instruction to become members and leaders of the bar, jud es and teachers of law in all parts of the land." Bankruptcy. “Persons of Abnormal Status as Bankrupts." By Carl Zollmann. 10 Co lumbia Law Review 221 (Mar.). “The decisions concerning married women. infants and lunatics are quite numerous and, taken together, establish deﬁnite doctrines, which it will be the purpose of this article to develop." The author does this with much thorough ness. “A married woman is at common law abso lutely incapable of having debts, of being sued, or of committing an act of bankruptcy. Where, however, either by the civil death of her husband, or by the custom of London. or b special statute, her disability has been who y or partly removed, she becomes sui (Wis, to the extent to which she has become iable to an ordinary action, and no further,

and can contract debts, and commit any act of bankruptcy, and may either ﬁle a volun tary petition or be forced into bankruptcy. "T e contracts of infants and lunatics are generally voidable, and hence are not such obligations as will afford a foundation either for voluntary or for involuntary proceedings.

Services to Legal Education," describes the

Both infants and lunatics, however, are liable

manner in which he develo the esprit de corps of the faculty by ma 'ng it his busi ness to keep in the closest friendly touch with his colleagues, and his sympathetic and constant intercourse with the students, and continues (p. 330): “His recommendation of youn men for the post of teachers in other schoo was widely sought, and through these teachers, as well as through his case-books, and through his friendshi with teachers in

absolutely for necessaries and on judgments for torts, and in addition the lunatic may owe debts contracted while sane, and may even contract certain debts during lunacy. . . . “It is clear that voluntary petitions are proper at the suit of infants, but to lunatics they have been denied both in England and

other schools, he exercise

a

t influence,

though one not easily measured, in the legal education of the country." Judge Julian W. Mack of Chicago, express inlga Igraduate’s recognition of the extent of "

is

ersonal Inﬂuence," says (p. 337): “No

narrow university lines hemmed in his sympathy. The only rivalry between the schools that he recognized was that of pro ducing, out of the raw material, lawyers cap able of sound reasoning, men devoted to the

right use of their training in the interests of their fellow men and their country." “James Barr Ames." By Dean George W. Kirchwey. 10 Columbia Law Review 185 (Mar.). "Maitland's

maxim,

‘Law

schools

make

tough law,’ became in his hands a principle of action. He was not content to have the school with which he was so long connected

a nursery in which to breed

ractitioners and

train them to their hi hest e

cienc; he would

have_it a seat of lega influence. a ibrce in the amelioration and amendment of the law. And

America.

It has been held, however, in Eng

land that a lunacy court can empower the committee in lunacy to do anythinghfpr the beneﬁt of the lunatic, including the ' g of a voluntary petition." Conﬂict of Laws. “The Renvoi Theory and the Application of Foreign Law." By Ernest G. Lorenzen. 10 Columbia Law Re view 190 (Mar.).

“Renvoi is insupportable in theory, and oﬂers no real advanta e to recommend its adoption on grounds 0 expediency. Courts that have sanctioned renvoi seem to have done so as a convenient means to escape the

necessity of a plying foreign law, a task often of considerah e iﬁiculty, but they have for otten that this apparent in, even if West ke's theory were adopte, can be had only after proof of the existence of a different rule governing the Conﬂict of Laws in the form country. The burden u n the judge wou d, in fact, be increased an

not diminished, for

he would be obliged, to some extent at least, to acquaint himself with the rules of Private International Law prevailing in foreign coun tries."