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The People's Law. By Charles Sumner Lobingier. New York: The Macmillan Co. 1909.

As the title page indicates, this generous volume of over 400 pages is an historical study of the participation of the people in law-making, both constitutional and statutory law, from the ancient folk-moot to the modern referendum. It is a study in the evolution of democracy and of direct legislation.

Part I, "Genesis," investigates the origin and early development of the idea of popular participation in law-making, beginning with the archaic folk-moot of the Aryan peoples, and showing how this democratic idea was carried onward through the centuries finding its expression in the Teutonic folk-moot, the church covenants of the Reformation, and particularly in the Calvinistic theocracy, through which this idea was carried to England, there to revive and propagate, through the medium of ecclesiastical organization, popular participation in community affairs at a time when through the decline of the guilds democratic principles were being forsaken. That Calvinism exerted a more profound influence upon democracy in government in England than in other countries of Europe is attributed to the influence of the democratic guild organization which preceded its spread.

It was in this atmosphere, permeated with the spirit of guild life and infused with the democratic ideas which it fostered, surrounded by these venerable institutions which had formed almost the only school of the English people in self-government during the Middle Ages,

that the church was founded.

After showing how the idea of popular law-making was transplanted to America through the medium of the Puritans, the writer devotes two chapters to a study of popular ratification of public acts in the American. colonies.

Part II," Popular Constitution-Making in the United States," which comprises one-half of the volume, takes up the origin of the idea of constitution-making in the revolutionary era and its development during the first forty-five years of our national existence when but one-fourth of the State constitutions were actually voted upon by the people, to the present day when popular ratification has become general. A chapter on "Recapitulation and Results" presents an interesting summary of the previous discussion together with a brief analysis of the pros and cons of the initiative and referendum.

Part III, "Popular Law-Making in the United States," attempts within the limits of twenty pages to discuss the development of the idea of the statutory referendum as to particular measures and of the initiative and referendum as to any measures.

Part IV, "Popular Participation in Law-Making Outside of the United States," devotes a number of chapters to the development of this idea in France, Italy, other European countries, Latin-America, and Australia.

The real scientific value of this clearly written, carefully prepared, and laborious pioneer study, seems to lie in the wealth of historical data from original sources which has been compiled in logical fashion. It is a valuable contribution to the history of politics.

Its practical value for the construction of concrete political policies, it would seem, could probably have been much enhanced had more space been devoted to a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of popular participation in constitutional and statutory law-making, and the presentation of more deductions of immediate practical value in the determination of the proper sphere of the initiative and referendum. Although a judicial and impartial study, the book represents a powerful historical argument in favor of the direct participation of the people in constitution and in law making.

In a scholarly introduction to the book, Prof. George Elliott Howard, to whom the volume is also dedicated, says:

His monograph rests upon a wealth of source materials never before thoroughly explored. He has enabled the student securely to follow the evolution of the written constitution in the colonial and revolutionary periods and in the individual States during the century and a quarter of our national existence. The author has enriched our historical literature with an illuminative treatise which will prove of great service to every student of political science and jurisprudence.

ERNST C. MEYER.

International Law. By George Grafton Wilson, Ph. D., Professor in Brown University, and George Fox Tucker, Ph. D., lately reporter of decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. 5th ed. New York: Silver, Burdett and Company. 1910. pp. xix, 505.

The new edition of this well-known text-book contains so many changes and so much new material that it deserves more than a passing notice. The authors have made little change in the general classification and

arrangement of material, having already attained a remarkable degree of success in this respect. There system is logical and worked out with great care.

The tremendous development of international law since the call for the first Hague Conference in 1898 has rendered large parts of existing text-books obsolete. Many of the so-called revised editions are not real revisions at all. Such can not be said of the volume before us. It embodies the results of the two Hague Conferences and of the London Naval Conference of 1909 as well as other new material. The reader may be inclined at first sight to criticise the adoption in the text of so many provisions from recent conventions, the status of which is still a matter of uncertainty, but a closer examination will show that the authors have put in the text only those provisions on which the powers are practically agreed. The fact that Dr. Wilson was one of the American delegates to the London Conference has enabled him to speak with special authority on all matters relating to the commerce of neutrals.

The volume is designed as a practical text-book for the average college or law school course in international law. It is necessarily brief and omits altogether some topics to be found in the larger treatises, but it covers the essential points. It is clear, logical, well proportioned, accurate, and fully abreast of the times. These qualities should appeal to the general reader as well as to the student, and there is probably no book of like compass which gives so comprehensive a view of the subject. There are fifteen appendices, containing the texts of recent conventions and other interesting matter.

JOHN HOLLADAY LATANÉ.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

(For list of abbreviations used, see Chronicle of International Events, p. 704.) Aerial law. La circulation aérienne et les droits des états en temps de paix. P. Fauchile. R. générale de dr. int. public, 17:55.

Luftschiffahrtrecht. Zitelmann. Zeitschrift für int. privat- und öffentliches Recht, 19:458.

La question des aérostats à la session de Paris (1910) de l'Institut de droit international. R. générale de droit international public, 17:163. Africa. La conquête du Sahara touareg. E. F. Gautier. R. de Paris, April 1, 1910.

.

L'Ethiopie et l'expansion européenne en Afrique orientale. II. René P. Ferry. Ann. sc. pol., 25:199.

Notre situation en Ethiopie. Lucien Comet. R. politique et parlementaire, 64:52.

Alsace-Lorraine. Les préludes d'une lutte nationale. Pierre Braun. Q. dipl., 29:457.

Déclarations de M. Daniel Blumenthal. René Henry. Q. dipl., 29:471. América moderna, La. Vicente Gay. España Moderna, 256:153.

Argentine. Reconocimiento por España de la República Argentina. Jerónimo Bécker. España Moderna, 255:5, 256:15.

Argentine-Brazil-Chile. Une entente cordiale sud-américaine. Henri Lorin. Q. dipl., 29:521.

Artistic and literary property. La propriété artistique et littéraire et la conférence de Berlin (1908). II. Léon Poinsard. Ann. sc. pol., 25:225. Atlantic Fisheries Dispute, The. P. T. McGrath. R. of Reviews, 41:718. Austria-Russia. L'accord austro-russe. R. Recouly. R. politique et parlementaire, 64:136.

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Les communique austro-russes. Jacques Dorobantz. Q. dipl., 29:403.
Les conversations austro-russes. Angel Marvaud. Q. dipl., 29:329.
Réconciliation austro-russe. Victor Bérard. R. de Paris, March 1,

1910.
Belgium, Britain and the Congo. E. D. Morel. Nineteenth Century, 67:407.
Chile-United States: Alsop claim. Un conflicto yankee-chileno; la cuestión
Allsop. Pio Ballesteros. España Moderna, 257:89.

China. The good and the bad in the western invasion of China. Ernest D. Burton. World To-day, 18:251.

La transformation de la Chine. Rouire. R. de deux mondes, 56:180, 57:204.

Danish foreign policy. La politique extérieure du Danemark depuis quarante ans et sa situation internationale, Comte de Guichen. R. d'histoire diplomatique, No. 1, 1910.

Declaration of London, The. John Westlake. Nineteenth Century, 67:505. Dutch and Belgian independence. Capt. Cecil Battine. Nineteenth Century, 67:663.

Egypt. De la condition juridique des étrangers en Egypte. H. Lamba. R. de dr. int. privé et de dr. pénal int., 37:421.

Le statut politique de l'Egypte au regard de la Turquie. H. Lamba. R. générale de dr. int. public, 17:36.

England. Imperial relations in 1909. A. B. Wallis-Chapman. Westminster R.,

173:253.

On the making of an over-sea dominion. Sir Francis T. Piggott. Nineteenth Century, 67:605.

England in Africa. L'Angleterre en Afrique. E. de Renty. Q. dipl., 29:227, 358.

England and France. A propos d'une alliance franco-anglaise. Ernest Lémonon. Q. dipl., 29:164.

England and Germany. An Anglo-German entente. Lord Lamington. Nineteenth Century, 67:48.

Le conflit anglo-allemand. — La lutte navale. Unsigned. R. de Paris, March 1, 1910.

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England and Germany. Sydney Brooks. Atlantic Monthly, 105:617. England and Germany: how to meet the crisis. Sir Edmund C. Cox. Nineteenth Century, 67:753.

England and Germany: how not to make the crisis. Thos. Hodgkin. Nineteenth Century, 67:862.

England and Portugal. L'alliance anglo-portugaise. Translated from the Portuguese of Moraes Sarmento [published in the Annaes do Club militar naval, November, 1909] by Abel Fournier. R. maritime, 184:573. England's peril: invasion or starvation. Archibald Hurd. Fortnightly R., N. S., 86:679, 862. Expatriation. De la condition juridique des "Heimathlosen " ou Sans Patrie " en France. Ernest Lémonon. R. de dr. int. privé et de dr. pénal int., 37:

66

403. Expulsion. De l'expulsion des étrangers en Espagne. Francis Lastres. R. de dr. Int. privé et de dr. pénal int., 37:369.

France-Germany-England. Les alliances et le point de vue naval. G. Blanchon. Q. dipl., 29:279.

Fachoda, La route de.

France-United States.

Victor Bérard. R. de Paris, May 1, 1910.
Le traité de commerce franco-Américain.

Dupontes. Q. dipl., 29:565.

P. Chemin

Grand old man of Turkey, The. [Kiami Pasha] Frederick William von Herbert. Westminster R., 173:529.

Great Britain and Japan in the Far East. Earl Stanhope. Nineteenth Century, 67:534.

High court of nations, The proposed. Unsigned. Canada Law Journal, 46:153. International law. De l'interprétation des traités internationaux. P. Pic. R. générale de dr. int. public., 17:5.

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