Review of Periodicals “Freedom from penal consequences can hardly be rightly construed as indicating any real alteration in the fundamental rule witnessed to by so man legal sages of the past, to the effect that hristianity is a part of our law, and is still a veritable and efiective part of it; but it rather indicates that the law deems it to be a saner method of maintaning the Christian faith, to reason with, rather
than punish, those who have the misfortune to be unconvinced of its truth, or inclined to
controvert it.” Restraint of Trade. "The New Doctrine Concerning Contracts in Restraint of Trade." By Jerome C. Knowlton. 8 Michigan Law Review 298 (Feb.). "Is a covenant in restraint of a particular trade and unlimited as to space against public policy and therefore void and unenforceable? “The new doctrine, recognized as an aban donment of an old rule of law, is based on new
industrial and
trade conditions,
but it is
doubtful whether the new conditions lessen or increase the evils which the rule is intended to prevent. . . .
‘ There is occasion for regret that the new doctrine has secured so firm a hold in the jurisprudence of our country. The only remedy, unsatisfactory as it is, must be found in statutory regulation." Roman-Dutch Law. "Roman-Dutch Law." By James Williams. 19 Yale Law journal 156 (Jan.). "The best modern authorities are the judg ments of Sir Henry de Villiers, late Chief Justice of the Cape, the greatest modern master of Roman-Dutch law, and certain text-books, almost all from South Africa. . . .
The reports are voluminous. They are fullest in South Africa and would bear favor able comparison with those of the United Kingdom and the United States." Sales of Goods. See Criminal Procedure. Scientific Methods. “The Physiology of Politics." By A. Lawrence Lowell. 4 American Political Science Review 1 (Feb.). This is the paper delivered by President Lowell as his presidential address before the American Political Science Association at its sixth annual meeting in New York City, Dec. 28, 1909 (see 22 Green Bag 147). At the outset, he brings out the important point that politics is behind other sciences because of its lack of that first essential, an exact terminology. But this is not its only draw back. It suflers also from inability to grow by segmentation, like zoology and botany for example, where we hear of cytology, histology, morphology, and physiology. Politics really has divisions corresponding to these. The physiology of politics treats of the functions of the various or ans of overnment. The distinction whic Mr. well makes between the morphology and the physiology of politics may be considered
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to corres nd after a fashion to that advo cated by . Spiegel in a recent German work, between constitutional law as dealing with the structure of the organs of the state, and
administrative law, in a novel sense, as concerned with the manner in which the functions of those organs are exercised. President Lowell thinks the actual work ings of the overnment need to be more carefully stu 'ed, and his address is really a plea for the more dili ent application of laboratory methods to t e investigation of the real world of public life. He urges the importance of observation of political he nomena for the purpose of throwing ight on such questions as those of nomination reform, opular referendum and initiative municipa charters, and the terms for which public oflicers should be elected. He urges 'kewise and points out the need of ap roach ing all these and similar (problems wit mind open and free from preju 'ce. “Let no man grieve because the truth he reveals may not seem of direct utility. Truth always reaches its goal at last, although the world may not at once perceive its value. Still less let him fret that he cannot himself give effect to his ideas; that it is not his lot to wield the sickle in the ripened field. Ben tham’s influence on the course of English public life was not curtailed because he did not sit in Parliament, nor was John Stuart
Mill's increased thereby; and what was true of Bentham's deductive reasoning is equally true of inductive political science today. It is our province to discover the principles that govern the political relations of mankind, and to teach those principles to the men who will be in a position to give effect to them hereafter." Sherman Act. See Monopolies. Speculation. "The Future of High Finance."
By Alexander D. Noyes.
Atlantic Monthly,
v. 105, p. 229 (Feb.). “The public mood is such that resumption of the process of exploiting corporation credit, on the scale and for the purposes of 1901 or 1906, will almost certainly encounter obstacles in the courts and the le slatunes. . . . "In theory at least, t e directors of a great
00 ration are assumed to act with the wi est knowledge and with the best interests of their properties in view. But the ‘Harri man episode,’ taken along with the other
tendencies of the day which we have reviewed, does not show that the theory can be safely left to operate alone." Taxation. “Landowners and Local Taxa tion." By J. Anderson Maclaren. 21 juridi cal Review 338 (Jan.). Exhibiting the tendency in Scottish burgh legislation to equalize taxes so that landlords and tenants may contribute in equal shares, and the disregard of the principle in the case of county taxation, the landlords patiently submitting to bein overtaxed at the rate of £500,000 annualgy.
