* Based on a series of articles in the Harvard Crimson, this book analyzes a bizarre episode in Rhode Island gaming history. A 1937 dispute regarding the legality of betting on horses led the governor to declare martial law and deploy National Guard troops to seize the racetrack at Narragansett Park. Chafee, a notable professor at Harvard Law School, was descended from a distinguished Rhode Island family and was a member of the state bar.

The Underlying Legal Principles of the United States

* Unprecedented in its coverage of territorial government, this set identifies a wide range of available resources from each state to reveal the underlying legal principles that helped form the United States. In this two-volume work, nearly 70 of the nation’s foremost scholars share their incomparable knowledge with the legal research community. It provides the reader with brief overviews of state histories from the colonial or territorial days to their admission to the union. It also covers issues relating to Native Americans, inter-state, Mexican and Canadian borders, and the development of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government.

Contains the First Publication of Vermont Reports

* First edition. According to McCorison, this early American treatise contains the first publication of Vermont case reports. Nathaniel Chipman, a Yale-educated attorney, is an important figure in the early constitutional history of Vermont. Using advice from Hamilton, with whom he corresponded, Chipman played a key role in Vermont’s ratification. OCLC locates 35 copies. McCorison, Vermont Imprints 1778-1820 256. Cohen 5384. See illustration below.

The Standard Treatise Used in

America in the Early Nineteenth Century

* Second American edition, a reprint of the 1799 London edition with an addenda of new cases and an appendix of forms and statutes. This was the standard treatise in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century. The first American edition was published in 1803; the twelfth in 1854. Marvin’s Legal Bibliography says it is “a comprehensive collection and analysis of Statutes and Decisions, and is not equalled in the variety and extent of its learning by any similar production in our own or in any language” (192). Cohen 2523.

Notable for its Enlightened Views

* Third edition. First published in 1713-1718, Jus Civile Controversum analyzes disputed topics in civil law through philology and comparisons to natural law. It is notable for its enlightened views, such as the wholesale rejection of torture. As its title indicates, Coccejus follows the series of topics in Lauterbach’s Compendium Juris Brevissimis (1678). High Chancellor of Prussia under Frederick the Great and a notable reformer, he drafted the Codex Fredericianus, which was adopted in 1794. ADB 4:373-374. See illustration below.

First American Edition of Coke Upon Littleton

* First American edition, from the sixteenth English edition, 1809. Text is unpaged with English and French (or Latin) texts in parallel columns. “Coke Littleton has exercised a most wonderful and abiding influence upon the common law.”: Marvin 205. Cohen 9451.

First Systematic Work on Law in Scotland

* Later edition of a work first published in 1655. Jus Feudale, in marked contrast with the compilations which preceded it, is an original work. “Indeed Craig was the first systematic writer on law in Scotland. The Jus Feudale is not a mere textbook of the law of land rights, but is a learned disquisition upon a great social system. The opening chapters are devoted to an examination of the sources of law in general, and trace the history and development of the Civil, Canon and Feudal laws. If Craig had accomplished no more than that he would have been entitled to a foremost place amongst our jurists, for unquestionably the form of his book not only exemplified the philosophical outlook of the learned Scots lawyer, but provided a model of construction and treatment for his successors....”: Marke 41. Sweet & Maxwell 5:26. See illustration below.

A Proposed Code for the Church of England

* Third edition. The Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum is an expanded version of the Henrican Canons, a proposed revision of Roman canon law intended for the new Church of England written in 1552 by a commission headed by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. One of the first acts of the English Reformation, it is an important source of information about the state of English canon law and church discipline in the mid-Tudor period. It is also an important source of insights into the challenges faced by the leaders of the reformed church. It was later amended by Matthew Parker, who succeeded Cranmer, and edited by John Foxe, who published it in 1571. Although it was never ratified by Parliament, it was highly esteemed by later lawyers and was an unofficial authority in ecclesiastical courts for many years. Wing, Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and British America C6828.

With Fifteen Posters with Proclamations of Sentences

38. [Criminal Law]. [Italy]. Regolamento per le Udienze Delle Segreterie Della Grande Cancelleria e de’ Memoriali. in Data 12 Decembre 1814. Turin: Dalla Stamperia Reale, [1814]. 6 pp. Octavo (7" x 10").

[Bound with]

[Fifteen 9" x 14" Posters with Proclamations of Sentences].

Stab-stitched pamphlet with untrimmed edges bound into contemporary three-quarter cloth over marbled boards, posters folded in thirds and tipped-in to rear of volume. Light rubbing to extremities, bookplate dated 1922 to front pastedown. Large woodcut arms of Turin to title page of Regolamento and head of most posters. Top edges lacking from most posters with some loss to images, occasional light foxing, signatures to a few posters. A curious item.  $750.

* The first item in this volume is a list of regulations of the Segreterie della Cancelleria in Turin. The following posters were meant to be displayed in public areas. Many of these sentences are quite interesting. One concerns a murder. Besides receiving life sentences, the murderers were chained together and marched past the gallows by the city hangman. Another man was convicted for stealing silver devotional objects from a church. Placed before the public, his hand was chopped off, then he was hanged. After the sentence was executed his hand and body were burnt on a nearby pyre and his ashes strewn to the wind. Taken together, these items are an interesting window onto the administration of criminal justice in Northern Italy in the early 1800s.

“A Complete System of

His Majesty’s Revenue of Customs”

* Third edition. First published in 1724, a time when Great Britain was consolidating its status as the world’s leading maritime power, Crouch’s handbook is an encyclopedic account of English customs law. As one would expect, it contains a great deal of information relating to colonies. It went through five editions, the final in 1755. Taken together, they are a valuable source of information for students of Atlantic history and the economic origins of the American Revolution. OCLC locates 9 copies of this edition, 61 copies of all editions. Sweet & Maxwell 1:326 (38). See illustration below.

First American Edition of

Important Treatise on Real Property

* First American edition, from the first London edition, 1804-1807, to which it is starred. This popular digest of the laws of real property was issued eight times in the United States between 1808 and 1856-1857. The standard work of its day, it was used as a textbook at Harvard Law School. Marvin, who said it was “the best book of the kind to be had until the publication of Kent’s Commentaries,” attributed its popularity to its convenience, large number of cases and “systematic analysis.”: Legal Bibliography (1847) 243-244. Cohen 9459.

English Sheriff’s Guide, 1700

* Fifth complete and last edition (abridged editions having appeared in 1628 and 1651). Dalton’s Officium Vicecomitum was the first work on the law of sheriffs and “continued to be a standard authority until the beginning of the eighteenth century.”: Holdsworth, History of English Law IV:119. Sweet & Maxwell 1:222(6).

De Lolme’s Important Study

of the English Constitution

* reissue of the second edition (1774), first published in French in Amsterdam in 1771 and in English in London in 1772. This highly regarded popular exposition of the English constitution went though several editions well into the nineteenth century. Bentham, who compared De Lolme to Blackstone, held it in high regard, as did Benjamin Disraeli, who called De Lolme was the English Montesquieu. (Originally from Geneva, De Lolme moved to London in 1761.) It was the first book-length analysis of the separation of powers proposed in Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws. In this respect it was an important influence on many of the American founding fathers; Hamilton cites it favorably in The Federalist. “This work has been held in high estimation from its first publication, and still holds a distinguished place. (...) It has been made the basis of larger works upon the same subject, by Stephens and Western. Judge Story remarks that the author `has presented a view of English Equity Jurisprudence, far more exact and comprehensive than many of the English text writers on the same subject’”: cited in Marvin 263. Camus, Bibliotheque Choisie des Livres de Droit 3087.

1816 Essay on Naturalization and Impressment

* Only edition. This book was a reaction to Great Britain’s impressment of British-born naturalized American sailors from American ships. The British defended this practice by claiming that men born as British subjects cannot renounce their citizenship. They were thus eligible for impressment. The author of this essay refutes this claim with evidence drawn from natural law and the law of nations. This book is attributed to John Hay [1765-1830] in some sources because it repeats the main points of Hay’s A Treatise on Expatriation (1814). OCLC locates 24 copies. Cohen 2320.

First American Edition of a Standard Work

* First American edition. Dwarris’s Treatise is a work upon the construction and interpretation of statutes and constitutions, made valuable to the American practitioner by the work of the New York jurist, Platt Potter. It includes “an excellent statutory history of the English law from Magna Carta down to the end of the reign of George IV.” HLC I:587.

By an “Unrivalled” Authority on Commercial Law

* Only American edition, translated and edited by John E. Hall. With notes and references to English and American cases. Emerigon was the leading French authority on commercial law. His work was held in the highest regard by English and American jurists. James Kent observed that “no subject in Emerigon is discussed without being exhausted.” Lord Ellenborough said he was an “unrivalled” theorist and practical writer. This treatise on bottomry and respondentia is a useful companion to his treatises on maritime law and maritime insurance. Citations from Marvin 293.

“The Leading Dutch Jurist of His Time”

* Later edition. First published in 1552, this treatise on the interpretation and construction of Roman and canon law went through several editions and issues. An important legal humanist, Everardus was president of the Court of Holland and the Great Council of Mechlin. According to Walker, he was the “leading Dutch jurist of his time [and] one of the earliest authorities on Roman-Dutch law.”: The Oxford Companion to Law 441-2. Not in Dekkers. This edition not in Adams or the BMC. See illustration below.

Uncommon Scottish Law Library Catalogue

* This is the first catalogue of the finest Scottish law library of its day and one of the most significant libraries in the United Kingdom. It was founded in Edinburgh in 1682 by Sir George MacKenzie of Rosehaugh [1636-1691], the important Scottish Jurist and Lord Advocate. It went on to form the nucleus of the Scottish National library. The entries list format. Some have brief annotations. Although most of the entries deal with legal matters, other fields are represented. In all, this catalogue indicates the quality of this library and the published resources available to its patrons. See illustration below.

* First edition. A volume in The Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise, a series renowned for its outstanding scholarship.

With a Presentation Inscription by Frankfurter

* First edition. The inscription reads: “For Rodolfo Batiza,/ who must have virtues/ to deserve to be, and/ gathers he does, the/ brother-in-law of/June White,/ With the good wishes of/ Felix Frankfurter/ July 18, 1956” Batiza was an important scholar of Louisiana’s legal history. June White was the wife the famous journalist Theodore White. Frankfurter’s book has four parts: “Law and the Judicial Process,” “The Judicial Process in Action,” Directions of American Democracy” and “In Memoriam,” a collection of thirty-four tributes to men Frankfurter knew and admired.

First Edition, London, 1759

* First edition. A skillful argument for the rights of the Pennsylvania Assembly over those of the proprietary government. The idea for this book originated with Franklin, who was sent to London by the Assembly in 1757 to represent the colony in a tax dispute with the Proprietors (descendants of William Penn living in Great Britain). Franklin was believed to be its author for many years. He denied the attribution, however, in a letter to David Hume. Though Franklin certainly provided much of its material, the actual author was Richard Jackson, his co-agent in London. Winegrad and Pegler, The Intellectual World of Benjamin Franklin 70. Sabin, A Dictionary of Books Relating to America 25512, 25513. Ford, Bibliography of Benjamin Franklin 253.

Early Treatise That Addresses

Attachment and Garnishment

* Fourth edition. With table and index. Gail[l] was a German judge and legal scholar. First published in 1578, this book deals with issues relating to mortgages and the attachment and garnishment of property as defined by the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire. This popular work was edited and annotated several times, and it influenced the development of the Dutch law of procedure. OCLC locates two copies of this edition. Walker 510. This edition not in the BMC.

“Monumental” French Treatise Maritime Law

* Volume I: “Introduction-La Haute Mer”; Volume II: “Les Eaux Interieures”; Volume III: “La Mer Territoriale et la Zone Contigue.” “[A] truly great treatise—a monument of exhaustive research, ripe learning, skill in presentation, and wisdom in utterance, the four essential conditions of that rare thing, a magnum opus.”: J.S. Reeves, American Journal of International Law 30:165 cited in Marke 623.

“The Book is Rare”

* First edition. According to Wallace, “[t]he book is rare....[It] contains a good many MS. cases from the reign of Henry VIII. to the end of Elizabeth’s, stated pretty much in the manner in which points are stated in Fitzherbert’s Natura Brevium; but the authorities vouched are generally from the Year Books.” The cases are digested under the following heads: “Of Rents,” “Of Dower Women,” “Of Bargains and Contracts,” “Of Waste,” “Of Emblements, Corne Sowne,” “Of Property of Goods,” “Of Replevin and Second Deliverance,” “Of Attachment, And Distresse,” “Of Lands Given to Charitable Uses Good, The Statute of 2.3.H.8.,” “Actions of Detinue,” “Of Executors,” “Of Obligations, Debts,” “Of Execution” and “Of Leases, Reservations, Reentries.” A second edition was published in 1648. Little has changed since Wallace’s day; OCLC locates 1 copy of the 1641 edition at Yale Law School and 4 copies of the 1648 edition at the California State Library and the law libraries of the University of Wisconsin, the University of Chicago and Washington University, St. Louis. Another 1641 copy located at the Library of Congress. Wallace, The Reporters (1882) 282-183. Sweet & Maxwell, A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth 1:309 (122). See illustration below.

A Lovely set of Redfield’s

Edition of Greenleaf on Evidence

* Twelfth edition: volume I; tenth edition, volume II; eighth edition, Volume III. Greenleaf succeeded Joseph Story as Dane Professor of Law at Harvard, and played a leading role in the development of its law school. His seminal treatise on evidence was published in three volumes between 1842 and 1853. The first important American work on the topic, it freed the bar from its dependence on English sources. It remained the standard work for nearly half a century until it was superseded by Wigmore on Evidence (1904-1915). This is the first edition that was not produced by Greenleaf. It is a complete work that was issued over the course of three years; Little, Brown used common edition numbers for the volumes of subsequent editions. HLC I:827. See illustration below.

Handsome Critical Edition of De Jure Belli ac Pacis

* A critical edition based on the editions prepared by Grotius with extensive annotations and references to individual editions. First published in 1625, The Law of War and Peace established the framework of modern international law. It describes the situations in which war is a valid tool of law enforcement and outlines the principles of armed combat. Though based on Christian natural law, it advanced the novel argument that its system would still be valid if it lacked a divine basis. In this regard it pointed to the future by moving international law in a secular direction. Ter Meulen et Diermanse, Bibliographie de Grotius 617.