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The Green Bag
the purely bibliographical literature of Germany is surprising. One must have a very broad knowledge of it to be able to determine where to look for the tool best suited for a given purpose. Any one interested in any particular phase of Continental law will receive invalu able help from the useful information supplied to the investigator. "To place the literature of this vast field both in its history and in its modern development more systematically before the investigator," says Mr. Borchard, "this guide to the first necessary step in scientific study, the mastery of bibli ography, has been prepared." The reader is directed not only to bibliographic treatises, but to the bibliographic sec tions of other treatises and of peri odical literature. International law and Continental law in general are first dealt with, and Continental law is then treated by countries, under thirteen heads. The space allotted to each ranges from ten pages in the case of Germany and seven in that of France to only half a page in that of Portugal. Within these moderate limits a great amount of suc cinct information is presented. The prefatory remarks of the author on the awakening of interest in Conti nental legal literature in this country repay reading. With the Continental Legal History Series and other recent publications in mind, he says: "For the first time the Anglo-American lawyer is enabled to examine the whole tree of legal knowledge — its roots in Roman and Germanic law, its growth before independent branches (like the AngloSaxon) left the main trunk, and the rela tion of the various branches to one another. The study of our present problems of superfluous technicalities in procedure, and of the application of mechanical rules and outworn concep tions to changing social conditions, will,
in the light of a past history in which the same phenomena have occurred, offer experience and give promise for their satisfactory solution in the future." The writer emphasizes the need of a knowledge of foreign law not only for the practical lawyer, in response to the demand first felt in the field of com merce and other relations of intercourse with European countries, but also for the lawyer, the legislator, and the scholar as part of a well-rounded equip ment. ENGLISH LAW REPORTERS A Handbook of English Law Reports, from the last quarter of the eighteenth century to the year 1865. with biographical notes of judges and re porters. By J. C. Fox, a Master of the Supreme Court, Chancery Division. Part I, House of Lords, Privy Council, and Chancery Reports. Butterwortb & Co., London. Pp. 107. IT IS interesting to read in Mr. Fox's informing introduction, that a judge remarked at the beginning of the eighteenth century that when he was a student he could carry a complete library of law books in a wheelbarrow, whereas they could not then be drawn in a wagon. In Wallace on Reporters the American author puts the number of reports in 1776, the year with which the volume ends, at about 150 volumes. In 1895 the English reports extended, according to the estimate of Sir Fred erick Pollock, to 1825 volumes, or 2120 including the Irish reports. In the light of these facts it is easy to understand why the period from 1776 to 1865 was selected. Wallace has treated the earlier period from the Year Books downwards "in a form which pro vides not only solid instruction but also excellent reading." In 1865 the Law Reports came into existence, and sup planted all of the authorized reports; they now hold the field in company with the Law Journal, Law Times, and Times
