Scientific Methods. "On the Concept of Social Value." By Joseph Schumpeter. Quarterly Journal of Economics, v. 23, p. 213 (Feb.).
Only individuals can experience wants, and the concept of social value which has been introduced by some leaders of economic thought and has quickly met with general approval, being found in nearly every textbook, may for some purposes be useful, by way of a scientific fiction, in the study of a non-communistic society. "In this case, however, the theory of social value cannot be accepted as a fully satisfactory statement of facts." The author is concerned simply with defining methods of scientific investigation, and showing the meaning and rôle of the concept which he discusses.
Status. See Aliens.
Taxation (Income Tax). "The Present Period of Income Tax Activity in the American States." By Delos O. Kinsman. Quarterly Journal of Economics, v. 23, p. 296 (Feb.).
Since 1895, sixteen states and three territories have paid some attention to the income tax, through either constitutional amendment, legislative enactment, or commission reports. Bills have been introduced in several states and laws passed in South Carolina and Oklahoma. The current movement in favor of income taxes, says the author, "is not due to the success of the tax in any state, but rather to the spirit of reform now sweeping the country. . . . The people have turned to an income tax because they believe in the theory that individuals should contribute to the support of the government according to ability, and that income is the most just measure of that ability. . . . Whether this demand, urgently expressed in so many of the states, be wise or not, it must be reckoned with."
Taylor's Science of Jurisprudence. An editorial in the March Illinois Law Review, of which Professor Roscoe Pound is editor, shows by numerous parallels the extent to which Dr. Hannis Taylor is indebted to Holland's "Elements of Jurisprudence" and to Howe's "Studies in the Civil Law" for the readable exposition of the views of the English analytical jurists in the second part of his "Science of Jurisprudence." 3 Illinois Law Review 525. Applying the rule that when another person's property has been converted into a new form, the original owner is only to be regarded as the present owner if it can be re-converted, the Illinois Law Review is plainly of the opinion that Dr. Taylor's discussion of fundamental principles which be long to the prolegomena of jurisprudence can be re-converted into its original materials, one of the chief of which was Holland's "Elements of Jurisprudence." Another of the materials of which Dr. Taylor's text is composed is Dicey's "Law of the Constitution." Moreover —
"Since the foregoing was written, the Juridical Review for January, 1909, has come to hand. It contains a paper by Professor Goudy of Oxford from which one learns that another portion of Dr. Taylor's book, dealing with the external history of Roman law, is made up of a mosaic from Muirhead's 'Historical Introduction to the Private Law of Rome' and Ledlie's translation of Sohm's 'Institutes of Roman Law,' and that Bryce's 'Studies in History and Jurisprudence' have likewise been utilized in the same way. It would be interesting to examine other portions of the book to see who are the owners of its original materials."
[See Green Bag, Feb., '09, p. 75.]
Torts (Legal Cause). "Some Suggestions Concerning Legal Cause at Common Law — II." (With supplementary note, "What is Legal Negligence?" See infra.) By Joseph W. Bingham. 9 Columbia Law Rev. 136 (Feb.).
From a penetrative analysis of cases, the author concludes that
"conduct may be wrongful in more than one aspect and as regards the right of more than one person. In a determination of responsibility for consequences to plaintiff, the abstract fact that the causal act or omission of defendant was a 'legal' wrong to a third person is never of any weight; but that it was wrongful to a certain person in a particular aspect may be of very great importance."
Moreover, the act or omission of which complaint is made may be made "legally" negligent by legislation imposing specified duties, though it might not have been negligence in the absence of such legislation.
"In all cases within either branch of our problem is involved this common question: Were the chances of occurrence of the consequences which constituted plaintiff's harm within any of the dangers that provoked legal condemnation of defendant's conduct? If they were, he is 'legally blamable' for the harm; if they were not, he is not responsible for it."
Torts (Negligence). "What is Legal Negligence?" (Supplementary Note.) By Joseph W. Bingham. 9 Columbia Law Review 154 (Feb.).
