Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/620

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Reviews of Books cisions are plentifully included. The author is able, because of his experience in bank ruptcy practice, to write very instructively of practice under the act. The citations are both to the Federal and to the Bankruptcy Reports. Collier on Bankruptcy has never lost its place as the standard treatise, notwithstand ing the appearance of other works of great value, and its merits of completeness, accu racy, and learning have been appreciated by the bar, which has found its usefulness to have increased with the appearance of each of its seven editions. When Mr. Collier originally prepared this work he expressed fears that the task of "blazing a way" in interpreting the statute, at a time when the courts had not construed its provisions, made it necessary to ask the leniency of critics, but the attitude of the courts toward the treatise at once established for it an enviable reputation. The needed modifications and enlargements of the text to conform to the decisions since rendered, owing to the care and skill exercised by Mr. Eaton, Mr. Hotchkiss and Mr. Gilbert, no longer furnish any ground for the original author's misgivings with regard totheprobable shortcomings of a pioneer work. Its latest edition sees it more reliable than ever as an authoritative exposition of the national bankruptcy law.

Practically the entire text has been re written and many new subjects have been dealt with. The arrangement renders the material most accessible, as in the former editions. Each section of the act is treated exhaustively in a distinct chapter, and the cross references are numerous. A new index of increased utility has been prepared. The edition of this year has 243 pages more than the sixth edition, and contains as a new feature a section on general orders, annotated, all the cases relating to them being treated and digested. This is, we believe, the only work in which the practitioner will find the general orders separately treated. The second volume of Bender & Hinman's Bankruptcy Digest, an important standard publication, has now been issued. While treatises are useful to economize the time that would otherwise be required of the practitioner for the careful analysis of statutes and decided cases, he must also have ready access to the judicial decisions them selves for data which even the most volum inous treatise could not possibly supply. The

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text-books will give him the main principles, but a certain case may possibly contain a dictum of importance bearing on the specific matter in hand, or it may be necessary to ascertain the facts as well as the law of an important case. The lawyer who has much to do with bankruptcy practice will there fore find the American Bankruptcy Re ports serviceable, with their accompanying Digest. With the appearance of this second volume, digesting the cases decided during the past three years, he has within reach, within the compass of a thousand pages or less, the law of all the decisions under the national bankruptcy act reported in the twenty volumes of the American Bankruptcy Reports. The authors say that they were able, because of their experience with the first volume, to make some improvements in the classification in the second one, but no ob jection was to be made to the first in this respect, which received the commendation of the bench. The Table of Cases Cited and Table of General Orders Cited are offered with the expectation that they will prove a valuable feature for quick reference to the cases under any particular section of the statute or under any of the Orders. The volume is elaborately cross-indexed. Mcelroy on taxable transfers in new york The Transfer Tax Law of the State of New York. By George W. McElroy, Assistant Chief Clerk in the Transfer Tax Bureau, State Comptroller's Office. Matthew Bender & Co., Albany, N. Y. 2d ed. Pp. xlii, 595, appendix and index 167 CM.) THE second edition of this standard work greatly enlarges the treatise to con form to the new Consolidated Laws, which took effect February 17, 1909, and covers all amendments to June 1 of this year. In its enlarged form, the work is a complete treatise on the Inheritance and Transfer Tax Law of New York State, giving sections 220 to 245, inclusive, of the Tax Law (Consolidated Laws, c. 60), with annotations and references, the material being presented largely in the form of a digest of cases. Each section of the statute receives careful detailed treatment, and the statute is printed section by section with the material conveniently grouped after each section under numerous sub-headings. The second edition will be found useful as a complete treatment of the subject, in