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The Green Bag

the Federal and State Constitutions of the United States” and “The American Constitution." The title, “Popular Law-Making," the author construes as “statute-making,

the spirit of statutes we have made, that we are making, and that we are likely to make."

When anyone thinks that anything is wrong nowadays, he tries to get a new law passed, not stopping to learn if

laws. of

He calls attention to the need

parliamentary

draftsmen.

Fortu

nately a long step forward has already been taken by the formation of Legis lative Reference Sections in connection

with many of our state libraries, follow ing, in a measure, the idea as first developed in Wisconsin. It is rumored

that a movement is on foot to organize a bureau, to be supported by private enterprise, to carry on this same work.

Regardless

The author points out that "not only

of proper form, he sometimes succeeds

our office-holders, but we ourselves, are born, labor, inherit, possess, marry, de

there are any laws already.

in getting his law passed, but so full of contradictions, and occasionally of bad grammar and spelling, that it would be

impossible to print it and make any sense. The ﬁrst ﬁve of the twenty chapters of this book are historical, covering the

English idea of law; early English legis

vise and combine, under a perpetual plebiscitum, referendum and recall," and hopes that he has made some sug gestions which will awaken an interest in the importance of his subject.

Would that every legislator could put aside self-interest, would cease to play

lation and Magna Carta; re-establish

the political game, and, before taking his

ment of Anglo-Saxon law; early labor legislation and laws against restraint of trade and trusts; and other legislation in mediaeval England. Practically the whole of the remainder is an historical and comparative view of American legis

office, be compelled not only to read but

lation on property rights, regulation of rates and prices, trusts and monopolies,

corporations, labor laws, combinations in labor matters, military and mob law,

political rights, individual rights, per sonal and social rights, marriage and divorce, criminal law and police, and governmental functions.

Freak legislation, so-called, is brought out prominently, not in ridicule, but to emphasize the remedy proposed in the ﬁnal chapter. “When our forefathers met in national convention to adopt a constitution, one of the ﬁrst things they did was to appoint a ‘Committee on Style,’ a com mittee that does not now exist in any

American legislature.” The author de plores the lack of uniformity in our

to study "Popular Law-Making," then would the evils attending present statute making practically disappear and we

would learn at once “what is the law." THE LAWYER'S OBLIGATIONS Ethical Obligations of the Lawyer. By Gleason L. Archer. Dean of the Suffolk School of Law. Boston. author of Law Oﬁice and Court Procedure. Little. Brown 8: Co., Boston. Pp. 367. (83 net.)

T THIS time when the various asso ciations of the Bar through the country are devoting a great deal of time and care to preparation and dis cussion of codes of ethics for lawyers

any thorough and scholarly treatise on the subject would be very welcome. In the author's own preface to the present work we ﬁnd the following compli mentary estimate of the scope of the book :— This volume enters into every question of professional deportment that can ordinarily confront the lawyer. It does not lay down platitudes and commands without the reasons