reason and experience have been excrescences and have proved untenable and transient. The authors of this volume have abundantly shown the value of history for the student of law. Their volume is full of citations from the great judges who, as is here so well shown, have based their historic decisions on the laws, precedents, and constitutions of the past. The student who is interested in the history of government and its origin in America can find in these decisions of State and Federal Courts information and enlightenment as to how our early government came to be, where sovereignty resided, and how the laws became established. Here the reader may find both the law and its history. The authors trace the origin of colonial law and the establishment of the United States Government, basing their exposition on court decisions. The law is their authority, and this authority is set forth by the reasoning and conclusions of the highest courts. The volume is not only a study of State and local law as seen in its history, but it offers a valuable study of the Constitution of the United States as set forth by sufficient excerpts from outstanding decisions of our highest courts. Here we find the Constitution as it has been judicially interpreted. This, again, leads us to the history and development of our supreme law. The origins of the Union; the relation of the Federal Government to the States; the government of Territories; the limitation of powers as between State and Nation; the growth of national functions; the beginnings and admissions of new States; the division of governmental powers; the content and amendment of State constitutions; the guarantees of the Constitution; the law of contracts and their inviolability; the police powers, and the taxing powers; prohibition, common carriers, the regulation of commerce, sanitary regulations; all these vital subjects and many others of equal importance are developed with fullness of authority in judicial citations. Here is a study in social legislation and case law, in all these fields of our legal system. In each case, the authorities seem conclusive, and together they involve a vast deal of legal history which lead to an understanding of the reason of the law. We are led to see, also, the progress of the law, and that guarantees of liberty and property are to be construed in the light of the social and economic conditions that existed when laws are passed and not in the light of such conditions as they existed when the guarantees were made. The guarantees were intended to promote the welfare of society and, therefore, new social conditions require new social laws. Not only public and constitutional law is given treatment here which brings out matters of importance in the history of government, but the common law, private law, criminal law, the law of torts and of equity, are all considered and they are generally brought to the attention of the student on the lines of their growth and evolution. The law is seen to be an unfolding process. In such a volume the law is made both an historical and a social study. The English origin of equity and the later development of courts of equity in America are traced, and reasons are shown why equity courts were not called into frequent use in our early colonial days. The cases that did arise were decided by governor and council instead of by judges and juries. "The Americans of that day were a nation of farmers. Land was cheap and easily obtainable. There was very little commerce and almost no manufacturing. Hence few cases arose in which the interference of a court of equity was at all needed." Thus, for instance, the historical condition explains the existence and operation of the law. The authors explain not only the history of the law in its origins but the principles of the law in its reasonableness. For instance, "equity delights to do justice," and he who "comes for equity must do so with clean hands," and equity is "for the vigilant and not for those who sleep on their rights," and that equity follows the law so far as the law goes in securing the rights of the parties to a suit, and no farther; and when the law stops short of securing this object equity goes on with a remedy till justice is done. "In other words, equity is the perfection of the law and is always open to those who have just rights to enforce where the law is inadequate." Such is the language from an Indiana case, one of a multitude in this volume used to prove the righteousness and reasonableness of the law in all departments of legal adjudication and jurisprudence. In the field of public law the volume traces the beginnings of international relations in ancient days and deals with the salient features of modern international law, including the law of the seas, the law of treaties, neutrality and belligerency, the equal rights of nations, the right of self-defense, and the public law for the protection of nationals holding property or being domiciled in other lands than their own. All conclusions are fortified by cases and decisions. The law of discovery and occupation as giving sovereign title to the soil; of Indian relations in early American history; of the Monroe Doctrine in relation to international relations; of fugitives from justice and of a state's obligations in relation thereto; international usages in diplomacy and arbitrations,-all these topics of special interests to the legal mind and to students of international law and diplomacy, come within the purview of the author's attention. Another important division of the work covers the whole field of statute law, which deals with legislatures, their methods and their powers, the nature and scope of statute law, and the relation thereto of the executive veto and of the large and controverted field of judicial control over legislation, and of the power of constitutional amendment. The giant powers of construction and interpretation are indicated as they have been applied in our constitutional development. I have thus attempted a brief review and summary of this work. What I have said is inadequate for giving a full appreciation or understanding of the content and value of the volume. From these indications, however, it will be seen that the volume is a comprehensive treatment on all phases of the law. While it is a good text book for law students to whom it will seem invaluable, it is more than a law book. It is an interesting treatise for the historical student and for the ordinarily intelligent reader. When I had read the manuscript I was convinced that here was a volume which would be not only heartily welcomed by all teachers and students of law but that all students of political and constitutional history would find it of great use in their work. The book deserves a large and appreciative clientele which should prove encouraging and gratifying to its authors. INDIANA UNIVERSITY, February, 1924. JAMES ALBERT WOODBURN. |