Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 22.pdf/548

 520

The Green Bag

is almost invulnerable. While it may be perfect than that submitted by any of his critics. His greatest defect was in his conception of the sovereignty of con stitutional law. But, as has been seen, his ideas were taken from the English

degree of recognition given to the force of custom. On the side of political sovereignty, he did not see the real limits of his problem or the nature of its complexity. But, practically considered, he traced the sovereign power as far as its practical import

system, and his mistake was only in the

ance would justify.

defective at points, it is more nearly

Where are the Law Books? By FREDERICK C. HICKS UPPOSE that a

lawyer, unham

pered by lack of time and money, wishes to make exhaustive researches in any ﬁeld of legal investigation, where, in the United States, can he ﬁnd

the books necessary for his quest? He cannot ﬁnd them in any one library, or in any group of libraries, if indeed he can ﬁnd them anywhere in America. Unless he be possessed of more infor mation concerning the contents of law

libraries than has appeared in print, he will waste much time, energy and money, before he learns where he can best begin his task. In other words, the legal literature contained in Ameri

can libraries is widely scattered, and there is no comprehensive guide to the contents of these libraries. According to “Statistics of public, society and school libraries having 5,000 volumes and over in 1908" (U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, whole no. 405), there are 109 law libraries and 54 state libraries in the United States.

The latter contain many law books, but the number has not been ascertained. Of the law libraries, 46 are in the North Atlantic states, 34 in the North Central

states, 14 in the Western states, 8 in the South Atlantic states, and 7 in the

South Central states. Each state except Delaware, Florida, Arkansas, New

Mexico and Arizona had a state library of over 5,000 volumes; while New York, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio, Wisconsin, Min nesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Idaho and California are each reported as having two state libraries. The 109 law libraries contained, in 1908, a total of 1,975,014 bound volumes and 62,125 pamphlets. Of these libraries 28 had over 25,000 volumes, and 5, more than 50,000 volumes. The largest law libra

ries in the United States are, according to published reports, Harvard, with 102,826 volumes; New York State Law Library, 83,554 volumes; Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 75,722 volumes;

N. Y. Law Institute, 67,398 volumes; and Law Association of Philadelphia, 50223 volumes. (1908 ﬁgures.) In volumes, the law libraries of the country are large enough to contain untold treasures, and, for the most part,

their treasures are untold. It is true that many catalogues have been issued,

and that it would be possible with much labor to bring these catalogues together and compile something like a union list of legal literature. But the result would

be unsatisfactory, because printed cata