Reviews of Books “If the housing authorities refuse to allow tenants to occupy a new house until all the necessary regulations have been met, builders become extremel anxious to meet require ments. . . . No ndlord can hold property without assuming liability for such assessments for betterment as the cit may think it wise to make. . . . Fortunate y the final tribunal of this country, the Supreme Court of the United States, has already determined the right of a state to say to its citizens, ‘You shall build in accordance with our laws and in no other way.’" wmi-wiyi. "Highways of Progress—VI, The Future of Our Waterways." By James J. Hill. World's Work, v. 19, p. 12779 (Apr.). "Waterways that are to play an important part in traflic must be deep waterways. That point cannot be emphasized too strongly. A vessel that carries only 1,000 tons cannot compete with a box-car. With a steamer
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carrying 10,000 tons you have it beaten. This is the key to the only growth of water borne traffic that has taken place in our interior commerce. . . . “Waterways should be created as other great physical enterprises are. . . . Locate the trunk-lines first. Open a wa to the sea by the biggest, freest, most avai ble outlet. Push the work as nature directs, from the
sea-coast up the rivers. All this should be part of a general scheme of co-ordinate im provement and conservation of resources." “Waterways and Railways." By Logan G. McPherson. Atlantic, v. 105, p. 433 (Apr.). “If the transportation of the less remunera tive trafiic be an economic necessity, addi tional means of transportation should be provided to relieve the over-burdened railway. . . . That transportation by water has been and will continue to be a necessary factor in advancing civilization no one can deny."
Reviews of Books ROMAN LAW IN THE UNITED STATES, ENGLAND AND GERMANY Grounds and Rudiments of Law. By William T. Hughes. 4 v.. v. 1. p . xv, 283+a pendix 71; v. 2, pp. x, Text-Index 28: v. 3. ' atum Posts of Jurisprudence," gp. x, 2l8+index 32; v. 4, pp. 12. Text-Index 27 . Usona Book Co., Chicago. (Sheep S16, buckram 815.) Roman Law in Medieval Europe. By Paul Vinogradofl', M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., Dr. Hist, .B.A., Co lgxford, us Professor of jurisprudence the University of Honorary Professor ofin History in the University of Moscow. Harper & Brothers, London and New York. Pp. l3l—appendices. (75 cts. m.) The Civil Code of the German Em ', as Enacted on A t 18. 1896, with the Int uctory Statute Enacted on the Same Date. Translated by Walter Loewy, B. L. (Univ. of Cal.), LL. B. (Univ. of Pa.), Ju. D. (Heidelberg) Translated and published under the auspices of and annotated by a special committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Law School of the University of Pennsyl vania. Boston Book Co., Boston; Sweet and Max well, Ltd. London. Pp. lxxi, 568+appendix 54 and index 67. (85.)
NOVEL conception underlies Mr. Hughes's work on “The Grounds and Rudiments of Law," not only novel but radi cal. That the author in relation to the prevailing currents of legal thought is a thorough-going radical is shown by his efiort to put forward a statement of the fundamental
principles of jurisprudence, of working value in the actual practice of law, with utter con tempt for the commonly accepted sources and for the doctrine of judicial precedent. The theory that the leading principles of the Roman law furnish the basis for our entire legal system is certainly surprising. This work therefore must be taken to offer a protest against the modern professional and academic attitude, and among the causes which have made such a protest possible one of the chief may be surmised to have been the writer's inability to appreciate the worth of that priceless legacy bequeathed to our own jurisprudence by the common law of England. As may readily be imagined, the work is built upon a fallacy. The author declares at the outset that the history of the common law of England "is a history of the gradual adaptation, through centuries, of barbaric British, Saxon, Norman and Danish laws and customs to the universal principles of the Civil Law of Rome." This is putting the cart before the horse, for it would come nearer the truth to say that the history of English common law necessarily includes the adaptation of Roman law doctrines to the
