Review of Periodicals into the bod of the common law of England under Lord ansfield, became as thoroughly common law as the oldest branches of ng lish law, the commercial law of continental
European nations has been segregating into systems scarcely less distinct than the several systems of civil law.
So, too, the new com
mercial law which is forming continually everywhere is forming under the influence of ideas of national or local law, under the in fluence of a legal philoso by which rejects the universal ideas and idea 5 of the eighteenth centu jurists, and through the agency of the most ocalizing of all law-making agencies. legislation. On the whole, if commercial law is still the more universal of the two, we must say that it has been tending to be come only less provincial than civil law. . . . "Great as the pro ress has been in this di rection, it is doubt ul whether, even in Eu rope where the greatest advance has been made and is making, any general uniformity of commercial law is to be expected in the near future. . . . "It is but eighteen years ago that the Con ference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws began its activities. As a result of its labors a uniform negotiable instruments law has been formulated, which has been adopted in thirty-one states and four territories, in cluding the District of Columbia.
That law,
which was formulated many years since, remains to be enacted in fifteen states and four territories. It has drafted a uniform Warehouse Receipts Act which as yet has been adopted in but ten states. Its uniform Sales Act has, as yet, been ado ted in but five states and one territory. ttempts to enact these statutes in many states have failed, and for a long time to come it will re quire vigorous exertion on the part of those interested in the movement to secure even this beginnin of a uniform commercial law within the nited States. A number of obstacles which will have to be encountered will operate specially in the United States. In the first place, the distinction between civil
and commercial law has not been recognized in English-speaking jurisdictions since Lord Mansfield inco rated the law merchant into the Englis common law. Again, we must reckon, whenever legislation is con
templated with a settled and widespread belief on the part of common law lawyers, that Anglo-American legal conceptions inhere in nature. A striking instance of this is to be seen in the obstinacy with which American jurists adhere to the common-law notion that criminal jurisdiction must be limited to the forum delr'ctr' commissr'. “I need not say that jurists and law teachers are doing what they can to break down such feelings. Nevertheless, when practical le 'slation IS in contemplation, they must be rec oned with. . . . "Within the more limited field suggested, however, the sociological movement in politics and the sociological school in jurisprudence are laying a foundation upon which a project of uniformity may rest. The conception of
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ada tation of the law to human ends instead of eduction of rules from abstract legal con ceptions, which is working a revolution in legal thought, must tend everywhere to mould the rules of commercial law to the demands of the ractical course of business the world over. ven more than this, scientific dis cussions in con s and conventions, bring ingl out the needs of trade in particular 10 ca 'ties and by comparison enabling us to draw with assurance the line between the particular and the universal, will pre are the way r‘apidgY for sound and practica le law making. ut of such discussions there may well arise in the near future a Conference on Uniform Commercial Legislation composed of jurists, ractising commercial lawyers and men of a airs in due pro rtion, to give us step by step a scheme of an-American legis latron on commercial subjects which may be a model not only to American legislators but for the world. Nowhere else will the two rival le 1 s terns of the world be so well balanced? blifwhere else will the analytical conce tions of the Anglo-American jurist and t e universal or, if you will, the natural law conceptions of the Latin jurist be so equally represented. With each to act as a check upon the other, with each system to throw light upon the other in the handlin of concrete problems, we may not unreasona ly expect great results." Common Carriers. "Some Questions in Connection with State Rate Regulation." By Guy A. Miller. 8 Michigan Law Review 108 (Dec.).
“It is fairly obvious from this incomplete examination of the law that the subject of rate regulation is not free from dilficulty. Now that the national government is about to assert the ri ht to fix interstate rates, it will become 0 much greater importance. The effective exercise of the power must be preceded by the determination of several points at present in doubt. An equitable method of accounting must be devised, in order that the revenues of railroads and those engaged in the public services may be ascer tained, and the presence or absence of a profit in each case be learned. The valua tion of the roperty used in public service must be equitably fixed, and in the case of railroads, and eventually of others engaged in interstate service, be apportioned as between interstate and state jurisdictions. And the rate of return upon capital which is fair to the public and to the owner must be ascertained." ' See Interstate Commerce.
Conflict of Laws. "What Law Governs the Validity of a Contract; II, The Present Condition of the Authorities." By Prof. Joseph H. Beale. 23 Harvard Law Review 194 (Jan). "It is to be noticed that courts who are uttering their instinctive views, the expres sion of their general knowledge of legal prin
