Index to Periodicals Articles on Topics of Legal Science and Related Subjects Adjudication. "The Length of Judicial Opinions." By Francis A. Leach. 21 Yale Law Journal 141 (Dec.). A statute of Missouri provides that "In each case determined by the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals, or finally disposed of upon a motion, the opinion of the court shall be reduced to writ ing and filed in the cause, and shall show which of the judges delivered the same and which con cur therein or dissent therefrom." "California (Houston v. Williams, 13 Cal. 25, cited by Judge Lamm in Turner v. Anderson) and Arkansas (Vaughn v. Harp, 49 Ark. 160) have declared such provisions of their statutes unconstitutional. . . . "Judges of today, with probably few excep tions, dictate their opinions to stenographers. Dictation is seldom conducive to condensation or conciseness of statement. . . . "Judge Scott, one of the early and most emi nent of the judges of the Supreme Court of Mis souri, noted for his conciseness, once asked a member of the bar how long this lawyer thought it had taken him to write two lines of a certain opinion? "On the lawyer's expressing his inability to answer the question, 'two weeks of hard labor,' was Judge Scott's answer." See Judicial Precedent. Admiralty. "Admiralty will not try Equit able Titles to Vessels." By James D. Newell, Jr. 21 Yale Law Journal 157 (Dec.). "It may be said that the admiralty court is also a court of equity, which is no doubt true, but it cannot try questions involving merely the equitable title to a vessel.' Aesthetic Regulations. Corporations.
See
Municipal
Agency. "The Real Estate Broker and His Commissions, III." By Floyd R. Mechem. 6 Illinois Law Review,313 (Dec.). Continuation of article noticed in 23 Green Bag 644, 24 Green Bag 24. Banking and Currency. "Everybody's Money." By Edwin R. A. Seligman, LL.D. Outlook, v. 99, p. 1055 (Dec. 30). Professor Seligman, who is one of this country's half-dozen ablest economists, presents a very clear and informing discussion of the questions
involved in the report of the National Monetary Commission. Bankruptcy. See Fraudulent Conveyances. Codification. See Roman Law, Marriage and Divorce, Sales. Conflict of Laws. "Doctrines of Private International Law in England and America Con trasted with those of Continental Europe." By Arthur K. Kuhn. 12 Columbia. Law Review 44 (Jan.). "If the marriage status no longer exists as to one of the parties, it must, of necessity, be dis solved as to the other. As was said by Mr. Jus tice Brown in his dissenting opinion: 'It is of the very essence of proceedings in rem that the decree of a court with respect to the res, whether it be a vessel, a tract of land or the marriage relation, is entitled to be respected in every other state or country' (201 U. S. 562, 616). "The cosmopolitan character of life under modern conditions would seem to demand a logical adherence to this principle. Without it, the development of an international community of interest in matters of private legal justice would be practically impossible. The trend of Private International Law on the Continent is
- n this direction."
Constitutionality of Statutes.
"The
United States Supreme Court as the Final Inter preter of the Federal Constitution." By W. F. Dodd. 6 Illinois Law Review 289 (Dec.). Perhaps the most important article of the month. Professor Dodd discusses, in all its rami fications, the right possessed by the United States Supreme Court to review decisions of the state courts involving questions of the constitu tionality of state statutes. He indicates the injustice of the rule which allows an appeal only where the constitutionality of the statute is sus tained by the state court. He would have an appeal allowable in all cases, whether the deci sion of the state court is against the statute or in favor of it. Litigants would thus stand on an equality, and the federal Supreme Court — in construing such statutes as the New York Work man's Compensation law, for instance, which cannot now come before it on appeal from the decision of the New York court of final resort — would be able to assist in bringing about a uni form construction of the "due process" clause. Mr. Dodd, therefore, would change the provi sion in the new Federal Judicial Code taken from the Federal Judiciary Act as enacted in 1867. He does not make this proposal, however, with out carefully considering the objections that might be offered against its adoption.
