CONTEMPORARY FOREIGN LITERATURE.

Etude Historique et Critique sur les Jeux de Bourse et Marchés à Terme. By EM. VERCAMER, Conseiller à la Cour mixte d'Alexandrie. Brussels and Paris, 1903.

This book contains a valuable historical and comparative examination of aleatory contracts from the Code of Justinian downwards, especially as they affect dealings on the Stock Exchange and produce markets. The effect produced on the reader is one of hopelessness that legislation can ever cope with the natural bent of man towards speculation. The book is very interesting, and its value is enhanced by an appendix containing many decisions of the Egyptian tribunals. As might be expected in the work of a foreign jurist, one or two of the references to English authorities are inaccurate, e. g., 8 & 9 Victoria, c. 618 (p. 2), Sir John Bernard's Act (p. 5).

Étrangers et Protégés dans l'Empire Ottoman. By PIERRE ARMINJON, Avocat à la Cour d'Appel mixte, Professeur de Droit International à l'École Khediviale de Droit. Paris, 1903.

This is another very creditable work produced by the Egyptian Bar. The author speaks with authority, for he has exceptional means of obtaining first-hand knowledge of his subject. The position of Turkish authorities towards the unbeliever appears to be one of contemptuous toleration. If he be a Kafir-Kitabi, one whose faith is contained in a book, he is entitled to better treatment than the mere unlettered heathen. At p. 15 is an interesting account of the imitation of investiture by Mohammed II in 1453. No doubt he smoothed the path of conquest by adopting, as far as he could, the relation of the Greek Emperors to the Christian patriarchs and bishops.

Halbsouveränität.

By Dr. JUR. M. BOGHITCHÉVITCH.

Berlin,

1903.

This is a painstaking and exhaustive sketch of "semi-sovereignty" and "suzerainty," from the point of view of jurisprudence, as illustrated by the Danubian Principalities, Servia, Bulgaria, Crete, Egypt, the Indian Native States, the South African Republic, and

other places. As to the word "suzerainty," the learned author traces its history from the customs of the French provinces-it occurs in Brittany as early as 1456-down to its modern use in International law. This use appears to be a wresting of its original meaning. Feudal suzerainty required three persons—a seigneur, a vassal, and an arrière vassal; suzerainty, in its later and more inaccurate sense, requires only two. The relation of the Transvaal to Great Britain before the Peace of 1902 was, says the learned author, entirely anomalous. It was neither sovereign, semi-sovereign, nor a protectorate. Nor yet was it a Staatsservitut, with two international persons as res dominans and res serviens respectively, as some German jurists have thought. It may be noticed that one of the authorities cited is Mr. G. G. Phillimore's article on "British Sovereignty over the Transvaal" (Law Magazine & Review, 1899).

Delitto e Pena nel Pensiero dei Greci. By ALESSANDRO LEVI. Turin, 1903.

This is a prize essay from the University of Padua, but more worthy of notice than such essays generally are. It shows how in law, as in everything else, the past lives in the present. The Greek classics enjoy-in the words of Anatole France-une immortalité mouvante. The consequence is, that at times they become modern, and Lombrosism is but a reversion to the ancient theories of Nemesis, of racial degeneracy, of inherited tendency. Thersites illustrates that crime is physical. Edipus was a criminal by circumstances and not by intention. Some modern writers will be found to assert that crime is environment. With Christianity, Nemesis no doubt existed, but it imported imputability; with writers who reject religion as a sanction, imputability is relegated to its old. position, and the liberum arbitrium of scholastic doctors ceases, or ought to cease, to be an element in assigning responsibility. Contingency is nothing but necessity. The doctrines of the Civilians and the Canonists are obsolete, and we are to return to the Greeks for our principles of penology. Whether the reader agrees or disagrees with this view, Signor A. Levi's book will at least give him much matter for thought, and will be found of more than ordinary interest.

PERIODICALS.

Journal du Droit International Privé. 1903. Nos. III-VI.

Paris.

The growing importance of the doctrine of renvoi is shown by the frequent discussion of the subject in Continental law books. An article by M. Ligeoix, of Poitiers, will be found at p. 483. Decisions of the Courts of Crete and Monaco will be found at pp. 678, 687. These are simply mentioned in order to show the wide field from which the Journal draws its material. There are interesting articles on the New York Bar and on the restrictions on immigration adopted by the United States and the Australian Commonwealth.

Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung. 1 April-15 June. Berlin.

These numbers contain little of interest to English readers, except perhaps articles on dramatic censorship (pp. 205 and 286). Much of the periodical is occupied with the discussion of points arising out of the Civil Code.

Giustizia Penale. 1 April-17 June. Rome.

This valuable periodical does not appear to have suffered from its recent change of Editor and is still one of the best digests of Criminal law existing. The question of compensation by the State to victims of judicial error seems to be arousing some attention in Italy just now.

Annali della Facoltà di Giurisprudenza. 1903. Vol. I, Part I. Perugia.

This is the beginning of a new series of a work which has been in existence some twenty years. The most interesting article contained in it is one on the Mons Pietatis of Perugia, which leads incidentally to a great deal of strange medieval law as to usury, and to the citation of two hexameters of Bernardino of Siena which could hold their own with the worst of the period.

La Justice Internationale.

25 May, 1903. Paris.

Zeitschrift des Internationalen Anwalt-Verbandes.

Vienna.

15 May, 1903.

Gazeta de Direito Administrativo. 10 Jan. 1903. Oporto.

These are all maiden numbers of new periodicals, to whom the Law Magazine and Review offers a hearty welcome. The French

one contains a very full account of the arbitration between the United States and Mexico on the question of the Californian fondo piadoso, the first case to come before the International Tribunal at the Hague. The Portuguese one has a digest of decisions, chiefly on electoral law and the powers of municipalities. The decision on p. 11, that a law imposing electoral disabilities is to be strictly interpreted, would no doubt be in accordance with English doctrine. JAMES WILLIAMS.

Other books and publications received :-Report of Parry v. Gollancz (Sherratt and Hughes); The Humanitarian; Civil Judicial Statistics, Part II; New Africa: An Essay on Government Civilization; The Beginnings of an Official European Code of Private International Law, by S. E. Baldwin; Ruegg's Employers' Liability; Willis's Workmen's Compensation Act; Encyclopædia of Forms and Precedents, Vol. III; Brown's Law of Enfranchisements and Commutations; The English Reports, Vols. XXVII and XXVIII; Broughton's Reminders for Conveyancers; Kerr on Injunctions; Jemmett and Preston's Law of Pleasure Yachts; Mackenzie's Law relating to Powers of Attorney and Proxies; Short's Ford on Oaths; Jelf's Fifteen Decisive Battles of the Law; Scholefield and Hill's Law of Settlement and Removal; Encyclopædia of the Laws of England, Vol. XIII (Supplement); Mayer's Law of Compensation; Anales Diplomaticos y Consulares de Colombia; Prison Industries (Howard Association).

The Law Magazine and Review receives or exchanges with the following amongst other publications:-Review of Reviews, Juridical Review, Public Opinion, Law Times, Law Journal, Justice of the Peace, Law Quarterly Review, Irish Law Times, Australian Law Times, Speaker, Canada Law Journal, Canada Law Times, Chicago Legal News, American Law Review, American Law Register, Harvard Law Review, Case and Comment, Green Bag, Virginia Law Register, Albany Law Journal, Madras Law Journal, Calcutta Weekly Notes, Law Notes, Law Students' Journal, Westminster Review, Bombay Law Reporter, Medico-Legal Journal, Indian Review, Kathiawar Law Reports, The Lawyer (India), South African Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Japan Register.