A Review of A DECLARATION OF LEGAL FAITH. By Wiley Rutledge

Johnson, Merrill N., S.Ed.

English

University of Michigan School of Law

Michigan Law Review Volume 46 Issue 1 1947 Rutledge: A DECLARATION OF LEGAL FAITH Merrill N. Johnson S.Ed. University of Michigan Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr  Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the Law and Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Merrill N. Johnson S.Ed., Rutledge: A DECLARATION OF LEGAL FAITH, 46 MICH. L. REV. 121 (1947). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol46/iss1/22  This Regular Feature is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact mlaw.repository@umich.edu. 1947] RECENT BooK.S 121 RECENT BOOKS This department undertakes to list and when possible, describe briefly current booka on law and matters closely related thereto. Periodicals, court reports, and other publications that appear at frequent and regular intervals are not listed. The information given is derived from inspection of the books, publishers> literature, and the ordinary library sources. BRIEF REVIEWS A DECLARATION OF LEGAL FAITH. -By Wiley Rutledge. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press. 1947. Pp. 82. $2. Inaugurating the Stephens Lectureship at the University of Kansas Law School, Justice Rutledge sets forth the tenets of his legal faith. For those famil-iar with his opinions, its most significant aspect is its brevity. For those seeking to predict Justice Rutledge's future Supreme Court opinions, the book, bec.ause - of its generality, is devoid of clues. But for those interested in the working philosophy of a man who helps mould the course of the nation, the book is an im-portant guide. The philosophy is not new. Familiar words endowed with new meanings are used to express it. Law, meaning the adherence to precedent, must be balanced against freedom, meaning loosely the desire of man to change and experiment. The result is justice, that is, Dean Pound's justice of permitting the people to enjoy the maximum pleasures of life with a minimum of conflict. As an example of what can be done in the way of proper balancing, Justice Rutledge points to the commerce clause of the federal Constitution. A major part of the book eulogizes the commerce clause as an essential cog in our feneral democracy and concludes with the timely but unoriginal observation that the world today would do well to adopt the federal system as a step away from the abyss of future war and toward world government. While the cynic may complain that the book preaches a philosophy of expediency without guiding principles, Justice Rut-ledge seems to hold that it is unwise in this unpredictable world to adhere to any-thing more concrete than the ~elfare of mankind. -Merrill N. Johnson, S.Ed. 

Rutledge:  A DECLARATION OF LEGAL FAITH

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Rutledge: A DECLARATION OF LEGAL FAITH

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University of Michigan School of Law

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