Tefft, Sheldon

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Review of \u3ci\u3eCases and Materials on the Law of Vendor and Purchaser\u3c/i\u3e by Milton Handler

University of Chicago Law School: Chicago Unbound

BOOK REVIEWSthat "a minimum .... of eight to ten classroom hours per week for a semester, divid-ed perhaps so that half is given in the first year of law study, and half in the secondyear, will be found necessary for the subjects covered by the two volumes."s This is theequivalent, in most law schools, of two large courses. Why not call one "Pleading andProcedure," the other "Equity"? Will not the subject matter of its own weight breakinto two such parts?The reviewer fears to seem captious; he does not intend to be so. Every strikinglynew departure must expect to meet the question: is this something better or just some-thing new? Opinions must always differ; the reviewer frankly records his that DeanClark has not brought us materially nearer a solution of what may be called "theequity problem." He has either started on a new tack up a blind alley, or simply putold wine into new bottles. This is mixing metaphors with a vengeance; the reviewerapologizes by coining a new aphorism: mixed casebooks breed mixed metaphors.That the workmanship of the book is first-rate may be taken for granted; DeanClark is not noted for any other kind of workmanship. The reviewer has used his firstvolume as an invaluable source of equity materials not elsewhere available. It seemslikely that the second volume will prove equally invaluable. Cases have been selectedwith discrimination; the notes are frankly and blessedly informative. Not infrequently,the gist of some long-winded case is put in a brief paragraph. The editor seems to beapproximating what may be the policy of the case book of the future: to include onlysuch portions or aspects of a given case as are of real value for a definite purpose. Note,for example, the enormous amount of information relative to injunctions against crimecompressed into some fifteen pages (177-192). Equally admirable for its combinedbrevity, aptness and completeness, is the treatment of mutuality, including ProfessorCorbin's valuable note from the Restatement of Contracts. Other instances might becited.These numerous and manifest merits will doubtless recommend the book to manywho will not wholly subscribe to the theories implicit in its organization. And, who,after all, would care to sponsor theories to which all would subscribe?PH rIP MECHEM*Cases and Materials on the Law of Vendor and Purchaser. By Milton Handler. St.Paul: West Publishing Company. 1933. PP. xix, 950. $6.ooIn the preface the author states, "Only those topics as are susceptible of case anal-ysis have been treated by the case method; doctrines which are settled have been pre-sented in informational text notes." If the book were designed for advanced studentsof law, for practitioners, for law instructors, or for judges this theory might be sound.They, presumably, have mastered the fundamentals of law and will understand the im-plications of text statements. This book, however, is a student's first book on convey-ancing. In such a book the theory should not have a place.First, Mr. Jerome Frank would probably question the assumption that legal doc-trines are settled. Though one may reject the extreme view of Mr. Frank one musts Preface, vi.* Professor of Law, the State University of Iowa Law School.THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW REVIEWrecognize that doctrines which appear settled today may be unsettled tomorrow. Thecommon law has always exhibited an unusual capacity for change, and the signs of1933 do not indicate that this capacity has been exhausted.Secondly, even though it be conceded that some doctrines are settled, it does notfollow that the method of presentation should depend upon this fact. The goals of thestudy of law should be the acquisition of a sound philosophy of law, a mastery of thefundamental doctrines of the common law, and of techniques for their application tothe problems of modern practice. That a doctrine is settled has little, if any, impor-tance in the task of the law schools in guiding the student in his quest of these goals.However settled a doctrine may be, the factors involved in the problem, the reasonsfor the doctrine, and the limitations on it are not necessarily obvious. Problems of fu-ture interests seem just as abstruse to students today as they did to students of previ-ous generations, even though many of the problems are settled today. The same ap-pears to be true of doctrines in other portions of the law, such as the rules of Price v.Neal and Lawrence v. Fox. Moreover, doctrines do not become unimportant when theyare settled. A student who has not mastered the fundamental doctrines of the law,even though those doctrines are settled, is not prepared for the practice, and the prac-titioner who is not thoroughly familiar with the settled doctrines of his jurisdictioncannot safely and wisely advise his clients. For these reasons the theory that unsettledproblems should be developed by cases and settled problems by text statements seemsunsound.In the execution of the plan for the book, however, this theory was almost entirelyabandoned, except in the part dealing with "Rights in the Land of Another."This subject, if one may judge from the preface and the treatment of the material,was a portion of the law which, though not really a part of Mr. Handler's generaltopic, could not be entirely omitted from the curriculum of the Columbia UniversityLaw School and hence was included in this book. And because Mr. Handler did aban-don this theory in the development of the materials directly bearing upon the subjectof vendor and purchaser, it is an excellent casebook for the study of that subject. Thechapter on Performance of the Contract seems especially good. The notes on theStandard Form of Contract, Title Search, Title Insurance, and the Torrens System arevaluable portions of the book. In some particulars the arrangement of the sectionsdoes not seem the most effective, but since they can readily be shifted to suit the fancyof the individual instructor this does not seriously detract from the excellence of thebook.But with all these merits the book has certain limitations. In the first place, it isbased upon the arbitrary arrangement of the curriculum of the Columbia UniversityLaw School. It covers a part only of the subject matters traditionally included in con-tracts, titles, rights in land and specific performance. It is suitable as a substitute forthe standard casebooks on these subjects only when it is used in combination with twoother books of the series (Powell, "Possessory Estates"; Jacobs, "Landlord and Ten-ant") and with a book on procedure which includes the rudiments of specific per-formance.Secondly, some important problems of titles and rights in land have not been ade-quately developed. Estoppel by deed is disposed of by a footnote of citations to stand-ard books on property. One case is allotted for the subject of prescription.Finally, it is regrettable that the questions in the annotations have not been formu-BOOK REVIEWSlated with the care that is unmistakably evidenced by the substance of the book. Noone quarrels with the form of the notes of a lecturer or of a trial judge. They may becouched in the vernacular of Maxwell Street, or of LaSalle Street. One may pardon theform of statements made under the pressure of modern life, as, for example, "Hell andMaria, no - we shot it along," but in a book designed as a model for students oneshould not find such expressions as the following: "Why a statute of frauds altogeth-er?",' "Are they breached by the same acts?",2 "Is it possible to draft a clause thatwill stick which enables the vendor to withdraw for any or no reason?",3 "The in-teresting question, however, is what the possession, assuming its sufficiency,, givesnotice of."4In spite of these limitations, however, the book should prove to be of great valuenot only for instructors of law but also for judges and practitioners confronted withproblems of the law of Vendor and Purchaser.SHELDON TEFFT*The American Doctrine of Judicial Supremacy (Second edition). By Charles GroveHaines. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. 1932. Pp. xviii, 705.$6.oo.Too many new editions of valuable works seem to have little justification save toswell the revenues of their publishers. This observation can in no sense apply to Dr.Haines' new edition of a book which since its publication in 1914 has been a standardwork in its field. The issues with which the two editions deal in so able and scholarlya fashion are of perennial interest to students of law and political institutions and ofvital importance to every citizen and resident of the United States. Much water hasrun under the bridge since the publication of the first edition. As the author observesin his preface, new material throwing light upon hitherto unexplored phases of theorigin and evolution of this peculiarly American doctrine has come to light through theresearch of scholars, and a national political campaign has been fought with judicial re-view one of its outstanding issues. This is ample justification, were justification needed,for bringing his work up to date.The general plan of the present volume is not materially different from the earlierone, but several of the original chapters have been substantially rewritten, and valuablenew chapters have been added which illuminate English procedure in relation to thereview of colonial acts, the theories and ideas involved in the establishment of theAmerican doctrine of judicial review, the inter-actions of politics and federal constitu-tional law, and analysis and criticism of the assumptions and premises commonly un-derlying thinking in relation to judicial review. There is also extremely interestingmaterial regarding the adoption of the theory of judicial review and its practice in vary-ing degrees in certain foreign countries, and the movement in others looking to its re-ception. In addition, the author has incorporated the substance of several importantarticles which he has published in recent years in various law reviews.The book is certain to appeal to readers who are looking for careful and exact infor-I Page 8. 3 Page 294.2 Page 677. 4 Page 655.* Associate Professor of Law, the University of Chicago Law School.

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Review of \u3ci\u3eCases and Materials on the Law of Vendor and Purchaser\u3c/i\u3e by Milton Handler

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University of Chicago Law School: Chicago Unbound

University of Chicago Law School: Chicago Unbound