Reviews of Books predict tendencies in legislation, but it is doubtful whether it will ever furnish a means of ascertaining definitely how important principles of substantive law will be modified. For example, Lord Rosebery and Sir John Macdonell both point out that during this period there are many statutes curtailing liberty, and as Sir John observes, it may be that "the age of contract seems to be ending, that of status returns." Such a generaliza tion, if sound, must have positive scientific value, but it would not be easy to state in even the most general terms its full significa tion with reference to the future legislation of the United States or any other country. The process of legislation, in fact, like the process by which we reach ethical judgments, is empirical. It is affected not only by main currents of intelligence but by countless cross currents of instinct, and when we say that a system of law is empirical that implies that it is partly instinctive. One of the important instincts to be counted on unfailingly, alike in law and in morals, is the instinct of mimicry. The present work clearly recognizes the ex tent to which the legislation of the British Parliament has been imitated in all parts of the Empire. In fact, if one wholly eliminates statutes which are but imitations of pre existing acts one cannot but be surprised at the smallness of the amount of real con structive legislation included in the volumes of the present work. Thus wholly apart from constitutional law, which certainly illustrates the mimetic tendency, the English acts relating to negotiable instruments, criminal law, patents, company law, partner ship, employer's liability, married women's property, and judicial procedure, have been adopted in many parts of the Empire, and in some cases throughout the British Do minions. In such a phenomenon is there profound significance? Possibly so, but on the other hand there are such things as fashions in legislation. As Sir John Mac donell says, In these pages will be found abundant confirmation of M. Tarde's theory as to the great influence of imitation in legis lation." It is hard to believe that the prev alence of that influence does not offer serious obstacles to the development of a science of comparative legislation which shall have much practical utility in enabling any par ticular society to solve the problems of the present or to anticipate the difficulties of the future.
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In fact, there seems to be a tendency to overemphasize the results of investigation in this field, which may readily go too far. Some familiarity with the results of such research is desirable in all who have to do with the drafting of bills. Serious defects and omissions can be avoided by utilizing every scrap of assistance which may be obtained from the legislation of other parts of the world. But the invaluable work of those who are engaged in the tasks of true constructive legislation must rely on some thing more than merely the performances of the legislatures of other countries. The drafting of the British Partnership Act, for example, and of the excellent statutes which are due to the work of our own Commissioners of Uniform State Laws, required something more than a study of the work done in foreign countries. The science of comparative legis lation is only one of many sciences on which the legislator must depend. There are the tests of other sciences to be passed, in fact, before it is even necessary to inquire whether a legislative bill compares favorably with the "standard" law possibly to be deduced by application of the comparative method. These four volumes embody an astonishing wealth of information. They should be in every good law library in the United States. The labor of compilation has been well per formed, and the volumes will be found useful working tools by all who are interested in legislative problems. They testify to the current tendency to pass laws aimed at social amelioration, and illustrate many other modern tendencies, such as, for example, that antagonistic to emphasis on technicalities in our judicial procedure. Because of the admirable sense of proportion displayed, and the scholarly outcome of the collaboration of so many learned contributors, the volumes will reward study from every possible point of view. NICHOLS ON EMINENT DOMAIN The Power of Eminent Domain. A treatise on the constitutional principles which affect the taking of property for public use. By Philip Nichols. Boston Book Co., Boston. Pp. 422 -f. table of cases and index 57. ($5 tut.) A USEFUL, up-to-date text-book on an important branch of constitutional law is now available in the form of this succinct yet comprehensive treatise on the power of eminent domain, by the former
