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Index to Periodicals Race Distinctions. See Fourteenth Amend ment. Railway Rates. "Authorizing a Federal Commission to Fix Rates of Interstate Carriers Is not a Delegation of Congressional Legislative Power in the Constitutional Sense." By Paca Oberlin, D.C.L. 72 Central Law Journal 425 (Dec. 15) "The act appears to prescribe a sufficient stand ard for the guidance of the Commission, in that it is not left to that body arbitrarily to invent a rule by which it determines what is right and proper according to its own understanding." See State Control. Real Property. "The History of a Title." By Uriel H. Crocker. 11 Phi Delta Phi Brie} 315 (Dec.). Bearing the subtitle, "A Conveyancer's Romance." First printed in the American Law Review, Oct. 1875. See Prescription. Roman Law. "The Value of Roman Law to the American Lawyer of Today." By Prof. Charles P. Sherman, of Yale Law School. 60 Univ. of Pa. Law Review 194 (Dec.). "All civilized countries of the world, except Great Britain and the United States, have fol lowed the example of Rome and codified their law, — France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, the Latin-American States and Japan have adopted the Roman Emperor Justinian's solution of this problem, Our lawyers are being driven — whether they like it or not — to examine the means and results of codification. In the future — the immediate future — those in the legal profession who can do this work will reap its rewards." See Prescription. (Sales. "Sales of Personal Property." 27 Bench and Bar 59, 109 (Nov.-Dec.). A description of chapter 571 of the Laws of 1911 of New York, which is the Uniform States Act drafted by Professor Samuel Williston enacted without substantial change. Numerous New York citations have been annotated. State Control. "The Limitation of State Control over the Regulation of Rates." By Jay Newton Baker, LL.M., J.D. 21 Yale Law Jour nal 126 (Dec.). "No one can criticise the legal ability and logic displayed in the Minnesota Rate decision. It is heavier than the majority of people conceive. Legislation that favors the greatest good and benefits the greatest number should be the uni versal rule." "State Taxation of Interstate Commerce, I." By H. J. Davenport. Political Science Quar terly, v. 26, p. 643 (Dec.). In this instalment, a way is pointed out in which the states may burden the intangible prop erty of corporations engaged in interstate com merce; which amounts to saying that the un
earned increment of the tangible property may be taxed. "Recent Federal Court Decisions Affecting State Laws Regulating Freight and Passenger Rates." By Hon. Grant G. Martin, AttorneyGeneral of Nebraska. 21 Yale Law Journal 117 (Dec.). "In the Minnesota case the Court assumes that the rates, both passenger and freight, fixed by the railroads prior to the Minnesota reductions, were lawful rates because the companies had filed their schedules with the interstate commerce commission. The companies have been carrying passengers over this same territory for a third of a century at three cents per mile. During that time the improvement in facilities and equip ment have enabled them to lessen the corres ponding operating expenses, and in the mean while this territory has quadrupled in popula tion. If those rates fixed by the companies thirty years ago were compensatory, what must they now be under present conditions?" See Interstate Commerce. Taxation.
See State Control.
Torts. "Legal Cause in Actions of Tort; I, II." By Prof. Jeremiah Smith. 25 Harvard Law Review 103 (Dec.), 223 (Jan.). The most logical and thorough discussion of legal cause that has come to notice in a long time. Professor Smith examines a number of defini tions of legal cause, and finds them untenable. He finally takes up the alleged rule of improb able consequence stated in this negative form, "that if a consequence which actually resulted from defendant's tort was an improbable con sequence, then defendant is exonerated on the ground that his tort was not the legal cause." Considering this rule in the light of authority, he finds it sustained by Pollock, Salmond, Cooley and Watson, and rejected by Beven, Bohlen and Street. The rule is exhaustively discussed, but is not favored : — "It is better squarely to reject the alleged rule of non-liability for improbable consequences than to affect to maintain the rule, and then practically get rid of it in a large proportion of cases by applying qualifications which are not consistent with the natural interpretation of the rule. It seems absurd to retain it as nominally the general rule, and then explain that, if con strued in its natural meaning, it does not apply in the majority of cases. Such a course does not tend to promote legal symmetry or clearness of thought; and it is especially perplexing to be ginners in the study of law.' A third concluding instalment may be ex pected to deal constructively with the formula tion of a theoretically sound rule. Uniformity of Law. of Statutes.
See Constitutionality
Wills. "Admissibility of Extrinsic Evidence in Aid of the Interpretation of Wills." By A. L. Cordiner. 23 Juridical Review 266 (Oct.). "In England, an inquiry is not allowable to
