Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/619

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583
HARVARD LAW REVIEW
583

BOOK REVIEWS 583 is no such restriction on the legislative power as in things like the Fourteenth Amendment. The limitation of the constitution is not as to the contents of an act but as to its subjects. (3) Residual sovereignty belongs not to the local but to the central government. (4) No popular reserve power of constitu- tional amendment exists in Canada. This is, without question, an interesting attitude. At least it is certain that the Canadian system did not consciously, as did Australia, attempt the adaptation of the American system to its peculiar problem. Yet it is worth noting that Australia, like Canada, has a parlia- mentary executive without any marked divergences from American federalism. And both in Canada and AustraUa the power of judicial review — the real keystone of the federal arch — has been very notably developed, particularly in recent years. Several minor points of distinct utility may be noted. The remarks on copyright (page 159/.) are wholly admirable and put the problem in the clearest possible Ught, despite its complexity. The note on estoppel from setting up unconstitutionality as a plea (page 196) is most suggestive. Particularly in- teresting is the discussion on locally restricted dominion laws (page 88 /.). Altogether the volume suggests how differently existing books on American constitutional law might be written if they were intrusted to people with Mr. Lefroy's broad constitutional insight. His work, on its scale, is a model for American lawyers to emulate. H. J. L, A Source-Book of Military Law and War-Time Legislation. Prepared by the War Department Committee on Education and Special Training. St. Paul: West Publishing Company. 1919. The idea of establishing a Students' Army Training Corps in the colleges of the country was well conceived. It is probable that in practice the plan would eventually have worked out well, and that there would have been a reservoir from which young officers could have been drawn. The wisdom of establishing units of the S. A. T. C. in the law schools was much more doubt- ful. The leading law schools of the country had already been drained of all the students who were available for military service in any form. Only in schools in which high school graduates were admitted could be found possible officer material in any numbers. The plan of the Committee on Education and Special Training of the War Department included a course on Inter- national Law, one on Military Law, one on War-Time Legislation, and one on War Issues; and such ordinary law courses as time allowed. It would seem that the committee in attempting to provide for the imparting of in- formation of practical military value and for the general intellectual training of the student in order to make him a more useful member of the army, and in attempting at the same time to assist him in preparing for his subsequent career at the bar, was attempting to ride several horses with very different gaits — a difficult feat even for the War Department. It is difficult to see just what would have been the advantage to the military establishment in keeping students in the law schools. A smattering of legal knowledge would hardly make a young man — certainly not one from eighteen to twenty-one years of age — more useful in the army, even though that knowledge should include a few weeks' acquaintance with International Law, Military Law, and such statutes as the National Defense Act, the Shipping Board Act, the Es- pionage Act, and the War Risk Insurance Act. And useful as such knowl- edge is, it could hardly take the place of the usual law courses as a preparation for the practice of the law. However this may be, if the S. A. T. C. was to be established in the law schools, it was necessary to provide material for the courses to be pursued.