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The Green Bag

Suggestions on the improvement of condi tions in St. Louis, by the chairman of the local bar association committee. Obviously Mr. Sturtevant's principles have points of resemb lance to those advanced in Professor Pound's proposals: "Eliminate all useless jurisdictions and offi cials; "Eliminate all rules of procedure which augment the labor of litigant and court, and delay justice; "Eliminate antiquated rules of evidence; "Eliminate the duplications of work of the judges; "Make the procedure a direct, short means to the end of administering justice; "Shorten the trial by compelling candor in pleading and by modernizing the rules of evi dence; "Classify the work on the basis of saving labor; "Unify the system." Juries. "The Jury System Under Changing Social Conditions." By John Wurts. 47 Ameri can Law Review 67 (Jan.-Feb.). "The present day jury is no longer the body of presumably ignorant men for whom, we are told, these rules of evidence were formulated by the judges centuries ago because their minds were so untrained that they were incapable of making nice discriminations as to the weight of testimony. This is to say that the rules of evidence have not kept pace with the develop ment of the jury idea and with changing socialconditions." Legal History. "The Date and Authorship of the Statute of Frauds." By George P. Costigan, Jr. 26 Harvard Law Review 329 (Feb.). From a thorough first-hand investigation, Dean Costigan concludes that the date of the final passage and royal assent was April 16, 1677. "The proper division of the glory of author ship of the statute, if indeed it be glory, may be left to others, but in conclusion it may be well to point out the significance of the fact that various Lord Keepers and Lord Chancellors played a part in the statute's enactment." "The Ancient Brehon Laws of Ireland." By M. J. Gorman, K. C. 61 Univ. of Pa. Law Review 217 (Feb.). "The existence of an hereditary legal caste like the Brehons withdrew the laws from the criticism of public opinion and, in a measure, no doubt prevented the establishment of legis lative and judicial authority. While therefore much that has been said against these laws by prejudiced and ignorant English writers is open to strong objection, still it must be admitted that they were an obstacle in the way of any con siderable social or commercial progress. The laws were made largely for the advantage of the ruling classes. The English real property laws were at one time certainly open to the same objection."

"The Genius of the Common Law; VIII, The Perpetual Quest." (Concluded.) By Sir Frederick Pollock. 13 Columbia Law Review 93 (Feb.). See 24 Green Bag 225. See Constitutionality of Statutes. Libraries. "American Libraries and the Inves tigator." By Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress. North American Review, v. 197, p. 312 (Mar.). "In law, the richest single collection in the United States is still, doubtless, that at Har vard. But the collection at Washington is being developed rapidly, as becomes its proper future as the library of our highest tribunal and as the appropriate source of knowledge of the laws of all foreign countries; not merely those under which they have developed, but those under which they are living and acting today. For the student of comparative jurisprudence it is likely that this collection will offer the completest resources to be found in this country." Literature. "Law from Lay Classics; II, Dr. Johnson on the Legal Profession." (From Boswell.) 7 Illinois Law Review 431 (Feb.). "This you must enlarge on, when speaking to the committee. You must not argue there as if you were arguing in the schools; close reasoning will fix their attention, you must say the same thing over and over again, in different words. If you say it but once, they miss it in a moment of inattention. It is unjust, sir, to censure law yers for multiplying words, when they argue; it is often necessary for them to multiply words." Maritime Law. "The Legal Status of Hud son's Bay." By Thomas Willing Balch. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, v. 45, no. 134, p. 47 (Jan.). "From the foregoing brief survey of some of the historic facts and rules affecting the inter national status of the waters of the Hudsonian Sea, it is evident that that great body of salt water forms, like Bering Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic Sea and. many other similar large sinuosities, part of the high seas. And that consequently Hudson's Bay is still what it was when Vattel wrote in the middle of the eighteenth century, an open sea." Monopoly. "Public Utilities and Public Policy." By Theodore N. Vail, president of the American Telephone Company. Atlantic, v. 11l p. 30 (Mar.). "The vicious acts associated with aggressive competition are responsible for much, if not all, of the present antagonism in the public mind to business, particularly to large business. These vices are the necessary accompaniment of the methods of destructive competition. The rea son for the public's encouragement of such com petition lies in the belief that from it they will derive some benefit. In the long run, however, the public as a whole has never benefited by destructive competition." "Regulation of Industrial Corporations." By J. Newton Baker. 22 Yale Law Jour. 306 (Feb.).