Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/453

 Reviews of Books JAPANESE COMMERCIAL CODE

419

duction, which gives a general account

of the various modern commercial codes The Commercial Code of Japan. By Yang Yin Hang, Graduate in Law of the Waseda University, Tokyo. Japan, Master of Law, University of Pennsylvania. University of Pennsylvania Law Series, no. 1. Boston Book Co., Boston. Pp. xxiii,

295+ 23 (index). ($3.50.) N the course taken by the Univer sity of Pennsylvania and some other prominent agencies, in assisting

American readers to a knowledge of the jurisprudence of other countries, there seems to be a recognition, perhaps, of

the fact that the American lawyer is really curious to learn more about the laws and institutions of the rest of the world. Undoubtedly, with the prog ress of the world and the unquenchable thirst for knowledge which is growing

universal, the insularity of the American lawyer is passing. He is coming to seek broad general information on subjects of no immediate usefulness in the prac tice of his profession. Mr. Yang’s translation of the Japan ese Commercial Code is the work of a scholar whose English shows skill in ﬁnding correct and concise equivalents

of the civil law. The ﬁrst Japanese Commercial Code,

which was promulgated in 1890, was repealed except as to the law of bank ruptcy, the present code becoming effec tive in 1899. It is to be hoped that Mr. Yang, who is so well equipped to en lighten English-speaking lawyers, may be induced to extend his labors to their great beneﬁt in the interesting ﬁelds of Chinese and Japanese jurisprudence. OBSCENITY A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT? "Obscene" Literature and Constitutional Law: A Forensic Defense of Freedom of the Press. By Theodore Schroeder. legal counselor to the Medico Legal Society of New York. Privately printed, New York. Pp. 439 (index).

HIS book is largely made up of

articles which the author had pre viously written and which had appeared in the Albany Law Journal, Truth-Seeker, AI/ienist and Neurologist, and other simi lar periodicals. Some of the articles are revised while others are merely re

for the juridical concepts of what is

printed.

really nothing more than an Oriental adaptation of a European system. The translator, who is a Chinese, is a

out the author's own statement at page

The ﬁnished product bears

278, where he says, “I tried hastily to make a book by the use of a paste-pot and some magazine articles, where I

thoroughly trained civilian who also has an intelligent knowledge of the English common law. The text is printed in clear, legible type, and the book is typographically satisfactory. To the sec tions of the code are appended the trans lator’s annotations, which are most help ful from the standpoint of comparative jurisprudence, as showing the sources

should have rewritten the whole.” If it had been entirely rewritten we feel sure that its length would have been only a fraction of its present 439 closely printed pages and much tiresome repe tition would have been avoided. The book is intended to be an argu ment in favor of greater freedom in the

of the material, most of which is derived

dissemination of information, discussion

from the German Commercial Code of 1897, though some of it is peculiar to Japan, and a part of it, including the law

and literature upon topics relating to sex and sex functions. In support of

of business associations, follows the French Commercial Code. Mr. Yang also writes a valuable historical intro

his contention the author urges that no book, idea; speech or action can be legally "obscene" because “to the pure

are all things pure" and a thing is