“A Great Credit to the Learned Editor”

* This set was prepared by the legal advisor of the U.S. State Department. The 24 chapters in the 1st seven volumes are devoted to individual subjects, such as extradition or maritime war. Volume 8 is a general index and list of cases. “The work is a great credit to the learned editor, a man of excellent judgment and balance and long experience in the Department of State, to the assistant editors and to the United States.”: Edwin Borchard, Yale Law Review 51:1053-1054.

Uncommon Compilation of Hawaii Territorial Laws

* With the texts of documents dealing with the annexation of Hawaii and the establishment of its status as a U.S. territory. “The Revised Laws of Hawaii 1915 has been the basis of the work of the Commission. With it, there have been combined the statutes passed by the legislature at the regular sessions of 1915 and 1917, the special session of 1918, the regular session of 1919, the special session of 1920 and the regular sessions of 1921 and 1923.”: Preface. According to a note on the front free endpaper of Volume II, the annotations record of amendments to the session laws of 1933. OCLC locates 48 copies.

Holmes’s Appraisal of Montesquieu

* Only edition (in this form). Holmes was chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court and highly regarded as the author of The Common Law when he wrote this essay. The preface to an edition of The Spirit of Laws translated by Thomas Nugent and edited by J.V. Pritchard that was published in 1900, it was later reprinted in Holmes’s Collected Writings and The Collected Works of Justice Holmes edited by Sheldon Novick. OCLC locates two copies, one at Harvard Law School, another at the Boston Athenaeum.

North Carolina Public Acts with 1804-1807 Appendix

62. [North Carolina]. [Iredell, James (1751-1799), compiler, and Francois-Xavier Martin (1762-1846), compiler and editor.] The Public Acts of the General Assembly of North-Carolina. Volume I. Containing the Acts from 1715 to 1790; Revised and Published, Under the Authority of the Legislature, By the Honorable James Iredell, Esquire, and Now Revised by Francois-Xavier Martin.

[With] Martin, Francois-Xavier. The Public Acts of the General Assembly of North-Carolina. Volume II. Containing the Acts from 1790 to 1803; Revised and Published, Under the Authority of the Legislature. Newbern: Martin & Ogden, 1804. [vi], 501, [2]; 226, [16].

[With]

[Appendix of Public Acts, 1804-1807]. [4], [227]-317 pp. Includes one-leaf publisher catalogue. Two volumes bound as one, each with title page. Small folio (8" x 9-1/2"). Recent period-style quarter calf over cloth, endpapers renewed. Front matter to Volume I lacking, content supplied as tipped-in typescript leaves. Minor tears to fore-edges of a few leaves, occasional browning, discoloration and foxing. Signature to a leaf, annotations in pencil to recto of another, interior otherwise clean. A solid copy in an attractive binding. $750.

* With side-notes, index, and an appendix containing public acts passed between 1804 and 1807. Also includes the texts of the North Carolina Constitution (1776), The Articles of Confederation (1781), The Treaty of Paris (1783), The U.S. Constitution (1787) and documents relating to its ratification by North Carolina. Copies that include an 1804-1807 appendix are not listed in the standard references. A copy with an 1804-1806 appendix is listed in Babbitt; copies without an appendix are listed in Sabin, Benedict and Shaw and Shoemaker. Babbitt, Hand-List of Legislative Sessions and Session Laws 385.

Unrecorded American Imprint of

Jacob’s Every Man His Own Lawyer

* Designated the sixth edition, this is actually a reissue of the first American edition, which was published by Gaine and designated the seventh in reference to the prior six editions published in London. Also curious is the erroneous statement that this imprint contains “statute law down to George 8”; both the English sixth edition (1765) and Gaine’s seventh edition (1768) have statute law to 4 Geo. 3. With the exception of the title page, both editions are identical in every respect, including the typo on p.282, line 27, which says “bill” instead of “will.” This popular layman’s guide by one of the most prolific legal writers of eighteenth-century England went through ten English editions between 1736 and 1788. The mention of “All Manner of Persons” in the subtitle is significant. Jacob, though certainly interested in boosting sales by attracting the widest audience possible, was an idealist who believed that widespread knowledge of the law would help create a more just society. This is also evident in his other publications, such as The Common Law Common-Placed (1726) and Treatise of Laws (1721). An unrecorded American imprint with no copies found on OCLC or KVK. Not in Cohen, Evans, James, Hildeburn or Bristol. See illustration below.

* From the last London edition, with notes and an appendix.

1620 Edition of Justinian’s Code and Novels

65. [Justinian (483-565 CE)]. [Godefroy, Denis (1549-1622), Editor]. Codicis Justiniani D.N. Sacratissimi Principis PP. AVG. Repetitae Praelectionis, Libri XII. Summaries Dionysii Gothofredi IC. Illustrati. Postrema Editio Prioribus Accuratior & Emendatior. [xiii] pp., 735 columns.

[With]

* Perhaps the most important work in the history of European law, the body of writings known as the Corpus Juris Civilis was commissioned by the Emperor Justinian in 530 CE. Compiled in three years under the direction of Tribonium, it was both a critical restatement of earlier law and jurisprudential writings and a complete collection of recent legislation. It is divided into four books, the Institutes, Digest, Code and Novels. The Code contains the laws in force during Justinian’s reign. It is divided into 12 books. Book 1 deals with ecclesiastical law, the sources of law, and the duties of high officials. Books 2-8 deal with private law. Book 9 deals with criminal law. Books 10-12 deal with administrative law. It received a great deal of commentary during the medieval and early modern eras. That of Denis Godefroy was influential well into the twentieth century. The Novels is a collection of later laws. Drawn from the Novels, the group of laws known as the Authentica were thought to be a collection intended for Italy. (This idea is now discredited.) Godefroy was a jurist, humanist, historian, scholar of Roman law and professor at the Universities of Geneva and Heidelberg. He was also the first to apply the collective name Corpus Juris Civilis to Justinian’s works. This imprint not in the British Museum Catalogue. See illustration below.

Attractive Edition of the Code

With Important Notes by Denis Godefroy

* With side-notes, an index of titles and Godefroy’s edition of the Twelve Tables, Constitutiones Friderici II, Extravagantes, Liber de Pace Constantiae and Epitome Feudorum. This edition not in the British Museum Catalogue.

James Kent ALS from 1802

* Endorsed “Supreme Court, 6 July 1802.” Kent issues a stay in the case of Thomas Hatton Jr. v. Harrnames M. Ehile - “Let all proceedings in this cause be stayed till the order of the court herein.” Chancellor and a member of the state supreme court. “Kent’s written opinions as chancellor were instrumental in reviving equity, which had largely lapsed in the United States after the American Revolution. He refashioned many of the doctrines in that area by combining concepts from English chancery jurisprudence with the principles of Roman law. After his retirement he again (1824-26) was professor of law at Columbia, but found the delivery of lectures tedious and soon resigned. He vastly expanded the material of his courses to prepare his Commentaries on American Law (4 vol., 1826-30), a systematic treatment of international law, American constitutional law, the sources of state law, and the law of personal rights and of property. It was enthusiastically received by the legal profession and in Kent’s lifetime went through six editions.”: The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th. ed.).

Interesting Letter from Kent to

Elkanah Watson on Agricultural Societies

* A fine letter to Elkanah Watson [1758-1842], a noted American businessman and agriculturist who sponsored the first American county fair. It concerns a plan for the institution of agricultural societies. Kent endorses his idea, stating it was “noble & patriotic, & well worthy of public attention.” He regrets, however, that he cannot assist Watson: “I am not qualified to take part in such pursuits, & besides the great and very responsible duties of my office demand & receive sole attention.”

Written When Kent was a State Legislator

* Written when Kent was a member of the New York legislature, this letter Kent acknowledges the receipt of £40 from Guard Bancken. Kent is best known for his work as a scholar and his decisions as New York State.

70. Keynes, J.M. The Economic Consequences of the Peace. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920. Original cloth, some shelfwear. Signature of Paul Freund to front free endpaper, internally clean.  $85.

* “Together we have striven to solve our common social and industrial problems. Together we accept the responsibility the great war has placed upon us as creative factors in the new democracy. Together we hope to attain to a higher standard for the future of our common womanhood”: Dedication.

The First Edition of Littleton with

Parallel Texts in English and Law-French

* First edition with parallel texts in English and Law French. Written during the reign of Edward IV [1442-1483] and first published around 1481, Littleton’s Tenures is probably the most revered treatise in the history of the common law. Much admired for its learning and style, it is concerned with tenures and other issues relating to real property. This venerable work, which Coke called “the ornament of the Common Law, and the most perfect and absolute work that ever was written in any humane science,” is considered a landmark because it renounced the principles of Roman law (and Latin) in favor of guidelines and doctrines drawn from the Year Books and, when necessary, hypothetical cases. Holdsworth II:573. Sweet & Maxwell 1:458 (119). See illustration below.

1833 Printing of Livingston’s Influential Penal Code

* Second edition, one of two printings issued in 1833. (The other has the date on the title page.) A comprehensive system of criminal law which, while not adopted in the United States, is still influential today because it is the first complete penal code built on Jeremy Bentham’s principles of codification. First published in 1828, Hicks marvels at the scope and clear organization of this code and notes that Bentham, Hugo, Lafayette, Story, Marshall, Madison, Kent and Jefferson considered it “the most comprehensive and enlightened system of criminal law that has ever been presented to the world.” A notably humane code, it is important for its advocacy of prevention rather than punishment. Livingston was a senator from Louisiana and later a member of Andrew Jackson’s cabinet. OCLC locates 62 copies of this edition, 70 of the first. Hicks, Men and Books Famous in the Law 180. Cohen 10348.

* A thought provoking book that provides a critique of appellate decisions, a working philosophy for judges and a practical guide for lawyers in persuading the court to decide in favor of any case as well as predicting the ultimate decision.

* Lombroso was one of the first professional academic criminologists and a leader of an influential school of criminologists who maintained that criminals are more often found to suffer from unique physical, nervous and mental abnormalities that were either inherited or the result of physical or nervous degeneration.

Annotated 1910 Compilation of Oregon Laws

* “In the prosecution of the work a systematic search was made of all session laws and codes from the beginning and the results carefully checked with previous compilations. The laws printed have been carefully read and compared with the original and authentic source, the enrolled bills, thus securing for the first time it is believed, an accurate text. The general order of the Bellinger and Cotton compilation has been preserved, as being most familiar, and therefore most convenient to the bar and public in general, and indeed it has been the plan to make changes from that excellent work only when a clear and plain reason required it....Special pains have been taken to bring the annotations down to date....”: Preface, Volume I [iii]. Babbitt 414.

First French Edition of the Louisiana Civil Code

* First French edition (we were able to locate). This volume contains texts of the civil code, the Louisiana and U.S. Constitutions and the treaty of cession that formalized the Louisiana Purchase. OCLC locates 32 copies. Not in Cohen or Sabin. See illustration below.

Notable German Treatises on

Bills of Exchange and Ecclesiastical Law

78. Ludovici, Jacob Friederich [1671-1723]. Schlitte [1683-1748], Johann Gerhard, Editor. Einleitung zum Wechsel-Process, Darinnen von Denienienigen Fallen, in Welchen Nach Wechsel-Recht Geklagt Werden Kan, Gehandelt. Auch wie der Wechsel-Process von dem Sonst in Anderen Sachen Gebrauchlichen Modo Procedendi Abweiche, von Stuck zu Stuck Deutlich Gezeiget... Halle: In Verlegung des Waysenhauses, 1753. [xxiv], 420, [28] pp.

[Bound with]

Einleitung zum Consistorial-Process, Darinnen, die Solcher Consistorial-Process von dem Sonst in Anderen Sachen Gebrauchlichen Modo Procedendi Abweiche, von Stuck zu Stuck Deutlich Gezeiget... Halle: In Verlegung des Waysenhauses, 1762. [xx], 182, 14 pp.

Quarto (6-1/2" x 8"). Contemporary mottled sheep, blind frames to boards, raised bands, lettering piece and gilt ornaments to spine, rouged edges, marbled endpapers. Rubbing with wear to extremities, joints starting at ends, scuff to front board. Title page of first work printed in red and black, attractive woodcut head-pieces, tail-pieces and decorated initials. Light foxing to most of text, occasional light browning. Later owner signature to verso of front free endpaper, interior otherwise clean.  $800.

* Tenth editions. With indexes. Professor of Law at the University of Halle and an authority on civil law, Ludovici was the first jurist to write a legal treatise in German. A prolific author, he published works on a wide variety of legal topics. His work is notable for its clarity, well-crafted syntheses and elegant prose style. The first title is a comprehensive treatise on the laws and legal procedure relating to bills of exchange. The second title deals with ecclesiastical law and church discipline. Both have notes by Schlitte, a Privy Counselor to the Emperor of Prussia. Stintzing/Landesberg III/1:136.

A Key Work for English Canon Law

79. Lyndwood[e], Gulielmo [William] [1375?-1446]. Provinciale, (Seu Constitutiones Angliae,) Continens Constitutiones Provinciales Quatuordecim Archiepiscoporum Cantuariensium, Aiz. a Stephano Langtono ad Henricum Chichleium; Cum Summariis Atque Eruditis Annotationibus, Summa Accuratione Denuo Revisum Atque Impressum. Cui Adjiciuntur Constitutiones Legatinae D. Othonois, et D. Othoboni, Cardinalium, & Sedis Apostolicae in Anglia Legatorum, Cum Profundissimis Annotationibus Johannis de Athona, Canonici Lincolniensis. Oxford: H[enry] Hall, Impensis Ric[hard] Davis, 1679. Three parts in one volume, parts one and two with separate title pages. [lxiv], 356, 155, [20], 77, [2] pp. Folio (9" x 13-1/2"). Attractive later quarter calf over marbled boards, raised bands edged with gilt and decorative blind stamping, lettering piece. Later owner inscription to front endleaf. Minor worming to a few leaves with no loss to text, interior otherwise fresh. A very appealing copy in all.  $750.