Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/1014

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978
HARVARD LAW REVIEW
978

978 HARVARD LAW REVIEW living American to make law a philosophy of life, and the school is fortimate in possessing him at what is clearly destined to be a critical epoch in its fortimes. A stranger may be permitted the remark that the supremacy of Harvard among schools of law will in large part depend upon the support given to him by the alumni. In the next edition it is greatly to be hoped that the portraits of Professors Hin and Frankfurter will be exchanged for something more nearly human. At present they are two distinct crimes. H. J. L. Select Cases on Trusts. By Austin Wakeman Scott, Professor of Law in Harvard University, pp. i-xiii, 1-842. In 1882 Professor James Barr Ames of Harvard Law School published the first edition of his Cases on Trusts. This was followed in 1893 by a second edition, which has become the standard case-book on the subject in practi- cally aU American law schools. The annotations in the second edition, and Professor Ames' theory of selection and arrangement of the cases, were an im- portant contribution to legal scholarship; the annotations, supplemented by Professor Ames' published articles on the law of trusts, have influenced legal thought on this subject in the United States more profoundly than probably any other published discussion of it. There were, however, gaps in Professor Ames' case-book which, with the shifting emphasis on various phases of the subject, made its use as a textbook in law schools increasingly diflicult. Especially incon- venient was the omission of cases dealing with the resulting and constructive trusts and charitable trusts. In order to fiU these gaps and to present more adequately the development of the subject during the past twenty-five years Professor Scott has prepared the present voliune. In performing this difficult task he has had the advantage of the free use of Professor Ames' notes in both published and manuscript form. He has made a painstaking search and selec- tion of the more modern authorities and has added many valuable notes to those prepared by Professor Ames which for the most part have been retained. The practical result is that Professor Ames' case-book has been brought down to date, its most conspicuous omissions corrected, and it has been expanded from a volume of five hundred and twenty-seven to one of eight hundred and thirty-six pages. The new case-book is well indexed; it contains a table of cases, a table of statutes, a bibliography, and a chronological list of Lord Chan- cellors and Lord Keepers. The most notable additions are the cases on resulting and constructive trusts and on charitable trusts previously published in pam- phlet form by Professor Scott. The cases on these subjects furnish two hundred and thirty- two additional pages. There is a new chapter on "The Termination of Trusts"; there is a very necessary addition of a number of important cases on "Who are Purchasers for Value"; there are added sections on "A Trust Distinguished from a Use," "A Trust Obligation Distinguished from Liability for a Tort," "A Trust Distinguished from a Condition," "A Trust Distin- guished from a Mortgage or Pledge," — all subjects which, in the interest of economy of time, most instructors will be inclined to treat without any ex- tensive reading of cases. The book in many respects is an improvement on Professor Ames' collection, prepared with a diligence and scholarly thoroughness for which Professor Scott is entitled to the commendation and hearty appreciation of teachers of this subject in American law schools. It was no light task to improve Professor Ames' case-book, even with the foundation which he laid and the aid of his notes and unpublished material. One would therefore offer any criticisms of Professor Scott's case-book with some hesitation without having first sub- jected it to the actual test of class-room use. There is, however, one feature of