But the formula Situs to whatever extent it covers the first element of the Conflict of Laws seems hardly to extend over the second element. When this foreign acquired right is brought into another jurisdiction, the question is : how far will it be given effect. The principle — and it is the one fundamental principle of law in the Conflict of Laws — is this : the foreign acquired right is to be enforced in the domestic forum upon equal terms with rights acquired at home. That this is always a question of the obedience of the court to the mandate of a common law rule, Professor Minor does not say outright. There is mention made rather of international comity in the application of which the court has discretion. This, by the better theory, is not the position of the common law. At all events, to class this general principle as a question of situs adds nothing,— it confuses rather. The sum of what has been said amounts to this : That the Conflict of Laws presents upon analysis two distinct divisions. If this is true, the attempt is hopeless to reduce the science to the consideration of a single principle — the Law of Situs.
COMMENTARIES ON THE LAW OF STATUTORY CRIMES. By Joel Prentiss.. Bishop. Third edition, by Marion C. Early. T. H. Flood & Co.: Chicago. 1901. Law sheep, (xv + 997 PP-) As Mr. Bishop has reached the extraordinary age of eighty-seven, it is not strange that at last one of his works bears upon the title-page the name of an editor. Thus passes from literary activity a prolific and accurate writer, to whom the bench and the bar have long owed a grow ing obligation. It is almost half a century since Mr. Bishop retired from practice and devoted himself ex clusively to writing. His first plan was to begin with Contracts; but, on learning that Professor Parsons was preparing a treatise on .hat subject, he turned his attention to other fields. In 1852 appeared the first of the seven editions of " Mar riage and Divorce," and in 1856 the first vol ume of " Criminal Law," now in its eighth edition. The first of the four editions of "Criminal Procedure " came in 1866, the " First
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Book of the Law " in 1868, the first of the three editions of "Statutory Crimes" in 1873, the first of the two editions of " Contracts "in 1878, "Directions and Forms" in 1885, and "NonContract Law" in 1889. Taking into account both quantity and quality of work, there is no American law writer, save Story, comparable with Mr. Bishop. Between the two writers there are obvious differences. Story's style is flowing and academic, whereas Mr. Bishop's, though probably framed quite as laboriously, is terse and homely; and similarly Story, in accordance with a professor's instinct, constantly uses the ancient Roman law, the modern systems of continental Europe, and the early, and almost obsolete, English treatises and decisions, whereas Mr. Bishop apparently does not go beyond the living decisions that would be cited as authority in an ordinary Ameri can court. Yet, notwithstanding these differ ences, each author has given us scholarly books that extract the law from the original sources, state it accurately, explain the technical and practical reasons underlying existing rules, and throw the whole subject into systematic order. Further, each of these authors has done work that is fairly entitled to be called creative. Thus, in " Marriage and Divorce," and to a less extent in " Criminal Law," Mr. Bishop was a pioneer, collecting and classifying doctrines for the first time, and often actually creating them, or at least suggesting new doctrines that after his initiative were ultimately adopted by the courts; just as Story long ago performed a simi lar service in " Equity Jurisprudence" and in "Constitutional Law." The treatise on " Statutory Crimes " is not one of Mr. Bishop's bcoks of a creative nature. The topic forbids creative work. The first half of the volume discusses the enactment and in terpretation of statutes, whether dealing with criminal law or not; and the second half treats of statutory crimes exclusively. The, new edi tion retains the whole of Mr. Bishop's text, and brings the references down to date and, like all of the author's works, it remains an ex ample of that admirable sort of book in which the writer does his own investigating and his own thinking with the result that the statements are true, the citations in point, and the reason ing free from fictions and pitfalls.
