Wyse, Joseph E.

English

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DePaul Law Review Volume 4 Issue 2 Spring-Summer 1955 Article 25 Snyder: Preface to Jurisprudence - Text and Cases Joseph E. Wyse Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review Recommended Citation Joseph E. Wyse, Snyder: Preface to Jurisprudence - Text and Cases, 4 DePaul L. Rev. 345 (1955) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/vol4/iss2/25 This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Law Review by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact digitalservices@depaul.edu. REVIEWSThe rules of evidence, developed from the hit and miss system of trial and error inci-dent to adversary proceedings, are subject to variation and re-adaptation to new cases asexperience proves necessary. In their ultimate resolution, the process is necessarily slowbut thus far, it has not worked so badly. I feel we should be equally slow to cast thatprocess aside for the supposed panacea of a formulated rule, which, no matter how but-tressed it may be by experience, must by its very nature, be largely a priori. The sim-plicity of code revisions may be deceiving, and as a means of "arriving at the truth," Iam cynical enough to believe that, at least in the field of evidence, they leave Pilate'squestion still unanswered.I think it would be well if every trial practioner read at least one book on evidenceeach year-a book that presents the entire subject within reasonable compass. Thelonger treatises can best be used for reference and amplification. I believe this should bedone in addition to the occasional job of briefing a point of evidence for use in court.Research on specific points is a necessary part of the handling of litigation, but a hundredbriefs do not add up to a comprehensive grasp of the subject as a whole. The rules ofevidence are so interwoven that the pattern cannot be seen by following individualthreads. McCormick's book is comprehensive, but not to the point of being burdensome.His style is clear and flowing, his phraseology is simple, coherent, connected and bal-anced and singularly free both from that professional jargon and legalistic stodginessthat is not only the curse of so much "legal" writing, but so often serves merely as anostentatious cloak to a complete vacuity of ideas. I found a great deal of pleasure ingoing over it, and indeed, lingered on some parts longer than time would afford.Whether you read it or use it for reference, it is an extremely handy tool in the work-shop of the lawyer. JEREMIAH BUCKLEY** Professor of Law, De Paul University College of Law.Preface to Jurisprudence-Text and Cases. By ORVILL C. SNYDER. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1954. Pp. xxvi, 882. $10.00.It is not easy to assay a casebook about jurisprudence. The subject is so mercurialand the possible approaches to the inquiry so numerous that analysis of the book becomeslargely subjective. The author of Preface to Jurisprudence makes the task doubly hard.He informs us in the Foreword that his book was "prepared for use in courses in juris-prudence especially in law schools, but also in political science departments of collegesand universities." He also expresses the hope that lawyers and judges may find the bookuseful. By directing his material at two groups who are unequal in experience with, andcomprehension of, the law-lawyers and students-Professor Snyder may have tried toaccomplish too much.The author's approach to the subject however is entirely satisfactory. It is to ex-amine the meanings of such words as law, state, sovereignty, legislative, judicial,executive, proof, right, liability, duty, power, privilege, immunity, property, thing andperson; words which are as common as their meanings are obscure. He develops thestudy along traditional lines, introducing each subject with searching text analysis andthen illustrating how each idea affects law by ample use of case material and examples.The book is large and possesses several virtues of a technical nature which addgreatly to its effectiveness. For instance, the cases used are uniformly interesting andcurrent, while the table of contents is one of the most complete ever seen in a casebookand would make an excellent outline of the material contained in the book.That the author has compiled a casebook which is scholarly and complete cannot bedoubted. With such attributes he can expect to attract those members of the bar who346 DE PAUL LAW REVIEWconscientiously and energetically quest for knowledge about and evaluation of thosegeneral, basic principles which do or should guide society along a path of order.Much more difficult to impress will be the minds of students who come to the battle-field of jurisprudential conflict, often with enthusiasm, but totally unprepared for thedisheartening confusion which generations of writers have contributed to the strife. Hewill not be far along in his study of Preface to Jurisprudence before he is struggling with awelter of definitions, distinctions and comparisons. That effective participation by stu-dents in classroom discussion could follow seems unlikely. Perhaps the trouble stemspartly from the author's own style of expression, which at times reads more like alecture than studied prose. A substantial obstacle is doubtless the paradox of reducingto the simple that which is complex. And yet someone has to do just that if our law stu-dents are ever to see in the legal profession more purpose than could be found had theyturned their talents to carpentry or plumbing.It is surely no easy labor which Professor Snyder has undertaken. It may well bedoubted whether any discipline has been subjected to as much impropriety of languageand razor-thin distinctions as has jurisprudence. It was the author's task to first trapthis material and then present it in intelligible form. That he has his quarry caged is cer-tain; that the author draws a clear enough picture of the beast for an uninitiated reader,this reviewer seriously doubts.JOSEPH E. WvsE** Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law.

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