Review of Books time-honored doctrine of the equal authority of the judicial and executive branches, by connecting an "unrepublican" system of this kind with historical instances of the Court's relinquishment to Congress of the jurisdiction conferred on it by the Constitution. The author lays stress on the absence of any right in Congress to limit the appellate juris diction of the Supreme Court; this is really the theme of the book. The earnest advocacy of anti-imperialism takes for granted that complete exercise by the court of its appellate jurisdiction would have led to a radically different governmental policy in the treatment of the inhabitants of the territorial possessions. As a matter of fact it takes more to clinch that argument than a historical survey of the Supreme Court's supposed abdication of a large part of its own powers and authority.
BUCKLAND'S ROMAN PRIVATE LAW Elementary Principles of the Roman Private Law. By J. A. Buckland, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of GonviUe and Cains College, Cambridge. Cambridge University Press; G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. Pp. 410 + 9 (index). ($3.25 net.) MR. BUCKLAND'S work takes for granted the reader's familiarity with the Institutes of Gaius and those of Jus tinian and is a commentary on the Insti tutes rather than an exposition of Roman private law. The author is primarily concerned not with principles of law, but with the institutions under which the Romans actually lived. The prin cipal value of the book lies in the in formation regarding a group of institu tions which we must understand to grasp the meaning of the rules laid down by the classical Roman jurists. This is a task of difficulty, and the discussion does not follow a smooth and easy road, but bears witness to the painful in
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adequacy of our knowledge and the im possibility of giving a conclusive answer to a multitude of perplexing questions as they arise. To teach the student to formulate these questions is quite as instructive as to attempt to solve them. The treatment has an atmosphere of interrogation and of reservation; it is cautious, and some will perhaps say too often negative, but through its very inconclusiveness so painstaking an in quiry can obviously be of great use in stimulating accurate scholarship. The result of this method of treatment is that the author, if he has not provided the student with an easy and attractive exposition, has nevertheless given him a useful tool to assist his investigations. For it is safe to say that there is no prob lem which has figured in recent discus sion on which the author has not thrown some light by his erudite examination of Roman legal institutions. The treat ment is highly intensive, certain topics receiving such thorough analysis that the book will be accounted indispensable by specialists in this field of legal studies.
INSURANCE AS A PUBLIC MONOPOLY Insurance and the State. By W. F. Gephart, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Washington Uni versity, author of Principles of Insurance. Macmillan Co.. New York. Pp. 228 (index). ($1.2S net.) UNTIL legislatures come to realize the need of skilful handling of the subject of insurance, and of correcting the deficiencies to which Professor Gep hart refers as having marked much of the legislative treatment of insurance, the controversies engendered by evils that have grown up in a business not yet effectually regulated will continue to take up much attention. The recent demand for anti-monopoly legislation against insurance companies, the author
