Index to Execution for Crime." By George Richards. 22 Yale Law Journal 292 (Feb.). "To the life insurance fund, very often, wives and children have made large contribution in money, toil and sacrifice. Their title to the fund became vested prior to the commission of the crime. What difference should it make, whether the insured was killed by his own act, or by the act of some stranger or by accident?" Interlocking Directorates. See Monopoly. International Arbitration. See Alabama Claims, Biography, North Atlantic Fisheries Case, Panama Canal Dispute. International Law. "The Sanction of In ternational Law." By Frederic R. Coudert. 61 Univ. of Pa. Law Review 234 (Feb.). "The causes of modern war are often said to be commercial. This is true in a superficial sense only. Commercial friction and commer cial ambition may indeed be the proximate causes, but they not the real and ultimate causes. There can be no war today where the temper and sentiment of the people is not such that they can be inflamed into a general pas sion. . . . The governments of today cannot make war in defiance of public opinion, nor is there the slightest chance of their taking so great a responsibility." "The Executive, Legislative and Judicial Recognition of International Law in the United States." By Charles G. Fenwick. 11 Michigan Law Review 296 (Feb.). "The recent Panama Canal Act furnishes an example of a case in which the sanctity of treaty obligation should have been recognized as im posing a limitation upon the legislative power of Congress. The debates in Congress prior to the passage of the bill do not suggest as great an anxiety as might be desired on the part of Congress, as a body, to keep the provisions of the act squarely within the terms of the HayPauncefote treaty." "Diplomatic Affairs and International Law, 1912." By Prof. Paul S. Reinsch. American Political Science Review, v. 7, p. 63 (Feb.). Dealing with the Tripolitan and Balkan wars, the naval rivalry between Great Britain and Germany, the Chinese revolution, the foreign relations of the United States, and Latin-Ameri can affairs. See Maritime Law, Panama Canal Dispute. Judicial Recall. "The Recall of Judges and of Judicial Decisions." By Howard Wiest. 11 Michigan Law Review 278 (Feb.). "Today we are threshing over again the old straw of a hundred years ago. To hear some persons talk, and to read some late writings, a person not familiar with the history of the coun try would get the opinion that it is necessary — to get back the government of the fathers — to take from the court the power to declare uncon stitutional legislation, null and void." See Social Legislation.
Periodicals Judiciary Organization and Adminis 191
tration. "The Administration of Justice in the Modern City." By Prof. Roscoe Pound. 26 Harvard Law Review 302 (Feb.). This is doubtless to be reckoned the leading article of the month. The subject is viewed in its broadest aspects, the problems of the admin istration of justice in the city being one with those of its administration throughout the entire country. Professor Pound's paper is so full of pregnant observations that an adequate abstract is impossible, and it should be read in its entirety by every one concerned with the problems of a progressive jurisprudence. It gives an inspiring survey of legal development in this country, and shows how we are still en deavoring to apply a law which originated in and is suited only to rural conditions to our modern urban conditions. How the law needs to be brought to every man's door, how it must be administered with increased efficiency and economy by a simpler, more skillful judicial organization, how the problem has become chiefly one of enforcement rather than of law making, how the responsibility of the court of first instance has broadened — these considera tions are clearly brought out. It is particularly to the needs of the poor litigant in the city that the machinery of the law must adjust itself. Professor Pound thus closes one of his most valuable and richly suggestive papers: "In conclusion, to make the administration of justice in the modern city what it should be, we must have, first, more thorough knowledge of the social conditions in our cities, for which law must be devised and to which it must be applied. We must have sociological teaching and study of the law and of the theories upon which law shall proceed. Second, we must have a much larger degree of municipal autonomy and at least a fair proportion of city judges upon our highest courts. Third, we must organize the judicial department as a unit; give it an administrative head with power to prevent waste of public time and public money and to direct the whole energies of the judicial organ ization to its work for the time being, and with responsibilities corresponding to this power; give it strong judges to whom large powers may be safely entrusted; give it full control of its clerical and executive force, and power to utilize this force as experience dictates to further the purposes of judicial administration. Finally, we must not be in too great a hurry. These are not things which can be brought about by legislative fiat day after tomorrow. The social interest in scientific administration of justice is much greater than the public commonly con ceives. We must not overturn what has been built up by judicial experience. We must rather learn how to use it. The social science of today is largely unlearning that of yesterday. We must not bring our law so thoroughly up to date today that it willbeoutofdatetommorrow." "Some Practical Observations on Reforming the Administration of Justice." By W. L. Sturtevant. 76 Central Law Journal 94 (Feb. 7).
