Gould, Calvin C.

English

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HATRED, RIDICULE OR CONTEMPT. By Joseph Dean. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1954.

University of Miami School of Law

University of Miami Law Review Volume 8 Number 4 Miami Law Quarterly Article 25 7-1-1954 HATRED, RIDICULE OR CONTEMPT. By Joseph Dean. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1954. Calvin C. Gould Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr Recommended Citation Calvin C. Gould, HATRED, RIDICULE OR CONTEMPT. By Joseph Dean. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1954., 8 U. Miami L. Rev. 660 (1954) Available at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol8/iss4/25 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Miami Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact library@law.miami.edu. MIAMI LAW QUARTERLYHATRED, RIDICULE OR CONTEMPT. By Joseph Dean. New York: TheMacMillan Company, 1954. Pp. 260. $3.75.The English Libel Act of 1792 made the publication of any statementwhich exposes a man to 'hatred, ridicule or contempt' a crime. Sincethat time many thousands of cases have been fought in that countryboth civilly and criminally. Mr. Dean's book is a collection of theseEnglish cases obviously chosen with an eye toward the wide range ofactivities over which they extend.What counts in communication is content; and what also counts-although not enough attention is paid to the fact-are the communicants.The author has successfully focused his attention on both. The readeris introduced to each of the cases with an account of the circumstanceswhich gave rise to the action. These are vivid and dynamic, and leaddirectly into the action of the trial. Once there, we meet politicians,authors, actresses and many others who are the stars of each courtroomdrama. Winston Churchill and Harold Laski are just two of the colorfulpersonalities spotlighted through the medium of artful cross-examination.The author's obvious intention to amuse the reader with pungent dialogueis successfully carried out.Mr. Dean recognizes the problem of attempting to balance the scalesof justice between freedom of speech and expression on the one hand, andthe protection of private reputation on the other. His outspoken attemptis to leave it to the reader to weigh the scales according to his ownphilosophy. Apparently circumventing the issue, he says, "the reconciliationof these two contradictory interests demands an extra sensitivity." Onecannot help but feel, however, that certainly part of this objectivity isdestroyed by his selection of cases, which range from a decision which isfraught with far-reaching consequences to a trial which provoked thiscomment by a British newspaper:The proceedings in Court constituted nothing less than a libel onthe nation. Names and innuendos were bandied about with arecklessness that was as unfair to the persons mentioned as itwas prejudicial to a fair hearing of the case before the jury. Sceneswere enacted of such gross unseemliness that the Court at timesresembled a madhouse. There was hardly a moment when theJudge can be said to have been the master in his own Court.A weak judge, a feeble counsel and a bewildered jury combined toscore for the defendant a striking and undeserved success.The reader learns that the motives for bringing such an action aremany. The incentive may be merely to establish the sham of theimputation. But often there is purely a financial motive in which theplaintiff is more interested in parlaying the costs of bringing suit than heis in the setting right of what is wrong.The book is admittedly neither a history of nor a treatise on theBOOK REVIEWSsubject of libel and the arrangement and selection of cases follow no setpattern. To the extent that they keep the reader's interest level high,however, the material is both stimulating and provocative.CALVIN C. GOULD INSTRUCTOR IN LAWUNIVERSITY OF MIAMIMEMBER DADE COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATIONJUSTICE. By Giorgio Del Vecchio. Edited by A. H. Campbell. NewYork: The Philosophical Library 1953. xxi 236 pp. $6.00.L' idea del diritto esisterebbe dato anco un solo individuo dellaspecie umana, purch questi si prenda a considerare in una relazioneipotetica con altri suoi simili possibili. Rosmini'Del Vecchio's Justice, which is the first English translation of thelogically sophisticated La Giustizia, offers at one and the same time arapid survey of the most significant writings on the subject of justice, and,in particular, a synthesis of Dcl Vccchio's own doctrines.He needs no identification for those who have had any concern withlegal philosophy in the past fifty years. His introduction to readers Of ourlanguage was by means of an article under the title "Positive Right" pub-lished in an English law review. 2 This essay was followed by the publicationof an eloquent triology of essays entitled in English, The Formal Bases ofLaw.3 By way of his great treatise, Lezioni di Filosofia del diritto,4 andnearly 50 other books, Del Vccchio has been one of the most importantinfluences on the contemporary generation of neo-idealist philosophicalscholars.La Giustizia in its original form was an address before the Universityof Rome. In the present English translation, edited by Professor A. H.Campbell, there have been added some notes, further bibliographicalreferences, and two Appendices (on penal justice). As a matter of fact,a large share of the book consists of notes; for example, the ratio of notesto text is 4 to I in chapters 8 and 13, and the ratio is 3 to 1 in chapters4 and 6. The notes assume a linguistic competence in Latin, Creek,German, and French. However, the knowledgeable reader will not blamethe author for refusing to put into practice Schopenhauer's jesting "PereantI. English translation: "Given even one single individual of the human species.the idea of law would exist, if that individual fell to considering himself in hypotheticalrelation with other possible individuals like himself." RosMIN, FILOSOFIA DEL DIRITTO147 (2d ed.)..Sulla postivita come corettere del diritto, RIvISTA Dr FILOSOFIA (1911); trans-lation in 38 LAw MAGAZINE AND REV wW 293 (1913).3. MODERN LECAL PHILOSOPHY SERIES, Vol. X, Boston, 1914, and New York, P021.4. LEZIONI DI FILOSOFIA DEL DIROTTO has been translated into 7 languages, includingTurkish and Japanese, but not yet into English.

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HATRED, RIDICULE OR CONTEMPT. By Joseph Dean. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1954.

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