Reviews of Books Law Reports. In the intervening space with which this book deals there are many official and unofficial, authorized and unauthorized reports which make up a rather bewildering aggregation of books. Hence the field for a hand-book designed on a chronological plan, con taining short biographical notices of the several reporters, and also brief critical comment Mr. Fox's on the treatment qualityisofhighly their work. satis factory in form, neither too copious nor too condensed. With the companion volume to follow, which will include common law and miscellaneous reports, it will constitute a desirable adjunct to the library of the American lawyer who acknowledges the debt of his profession to the early nineteenth century reporters. OPPENHEIM'S PANAMA CANAL CONFLICT The Panama Canal Conflict between Great Britain and the United States of America. A Study. By L. Oppenheim, M.A.. LL.D., Whewell Professor of International Law in the University of Cam bridge, etc. 2d edition. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 57. (2s.6d.net.) THE author speaks of this work as a modest production and would be the last person to claim any great value for it. It was written at the earliest stage of the controversy, before the recent diplomatic correspondence, and prepared, we are told, sine ira et studio, without being based on any further information than could be gained from the treaties and state papers directly bearing on the affair. The treatment is more popular than academic, and the essay is perhaps not 10,000 words in length, dealing only with the larger aspects of the controversy. The ques tion, if not yet distinctly a moot ques tion, may eventually become one, and the learned author seems to have done well to waste no more attention upon it. The status of the controversy is
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stated with simplicity and impartiality, and has not been substantially altered by the negotiations between our Govern ment and the English Foreign Office. Needless to say, no copious citation of authorities would be necessary to sub stantiate the almost self-evident propo sitions advanced. The book may be recommended as a clear resumS of prin ciples of international law that have been more comprehensively but not more helpfully treated elsewhere.
WESTERVELT'S PURE FOOD LAW American Pure Food and Drug Laws; comprising the statutes of the United States and of the several states of the Union on the subject of food and drugs, their manufacture, sale and distribution, whether in interstate or foreign commerce; the administrative rules and regulations of the federal and state depart ments and commissioners, and the standards of purity, etc. By James Westervelt, M.A., of the New York and New Jersey bars. Vernon Law Book Co., Kansas City. Mo. Pp. 1450 + appendix and index 85. ($7.50.) THE object of the compiler of this work was to produce a volume of practical use to laymen as well as to lawyers, and this is indicated by the sifting of judicial decisions and the inclusion of many sound practical sug gestions for the manufacturer of food products. A standard scheme was pre pared for the treatment of the subject under seventy-five numbered headings, and this scheme, which serves to index the voluminous contents, is applied first to the analysis of the federal law, and afterward to the states one by one in alphabetical order — "the key-number" system. The treatment does not follow the plan of a digest, but is discursive, the object being to set forth the law not only by extended quotation but also by a careful weighing of every important feature of the statutes and regulations. The work is likely to meet admirably the purpose aimed at. It reveals a con scientious effort to achieve not only
