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1. Black, H[enry] Campbell.
A Handbook of Bankruptcy Law: Embodying the Full Text of the Act
of Congress of 1898, and Annotated with References to Pertinent
Decisions Under Former Statutes. St. Paul: West Publishing Co.,
1898. viii, 326 pp. Reprinted October 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange,
Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-532-7. Cloth. $95.
* Reprint of the first edition. This treatise contains the complete
text of the important National Bankruptcy Act of 1898 with
interpretative annotations. Taken together, they are an important
document of the act’s initial reception. In these Black [1860-1927]
“gives special prominence...to the elucidation of those questions
which will probably first come before the courts for
settlement—questions, that is, of jurisdiction, of procedure, of the
persons and corporations entitled to take advantage of the law, or
liable to be proceeded against under it, and in regard to the acts
of bankruptcy upon which a petition in involuntary cases may be
founded (v). A response to the Panic of 1893, the 1898 act was the
first to address the complexity and national scope of modern
industrial capitalism. Best known for his law dictionary, Black
wrote respected treatises on constitutional law, contracts, taxation
and other subjects.  
2. Crandall, Samuel B.
Treaties, Their Making and Enforcement. Washington, D.C.:
John Bryne & Co., 1916. xxxii, 663 pp. Reprinted October 2005 by The
Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-492-4. Cloth. $140.
* Reprint of the second edition. Crandall analyzes agency and the
right of ratification, the essentials of validity, the reality of
consent and the operation of treaties from the date they take effect
to their interpretation and termination. It explores treaty-making
in the United States in great depth, including treaties made before
and during the Articles of Confederation era, and discusses
treaty-making in Germany, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy,
Denmark, Switzerland and other countries. This important treatise
was first published in 1904. The second edition is preferable
because it is a substantially expanded work.
“The Most Notable” Early Work on Legal Education
3. Doderidge, John.
The English Lawyer: Describing a Method for the Managing of the
Lawes of this Land. And Expressing the Best Qualities Requisite in
the Student, Practizer, Judges and Fathers of the Same. London:
Assignes of I. More, 1631. Reprinted October 2005 by The Lawbook
Exchange Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-536-X. Cloth. $95.
* Reprint of the first edition. “Of books written about law to
instruct students,” says Holdsworth, “the most notable, written by a
common lawyer, is Doderidge’s ‘English Lawyer.’” Doderidge
[1555-1628] urges the student to acquire a solid liberal-arts
education that emphasizes subjects with practical application, such
as logic and etymology. Regarding the specifics of legal education,
he discusses the best methods of study and information on the
sources and principles of English law. Along with Coke and Bacon,
Doderidge was one of the most distinguished legal figures of his
age. A member of the King’s Bench, a Serjeant for Prince Henry,
solicitor-general and a member of Parliament, he was the author of
five important works that all later published posthumously.
Holdsworth, History of English Law V:397-398.
4. Girault, Arthur.
The Colonial Tariff Policy of France.
Edited by Charles Gide. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1916. vii,
305, 6 pp. Reprinted October 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN
1-58477-556-4. Cloth. $95.
* Reprint of the first and only edition. Girault asks “[w]hat
customs regime should control relations between a colony and the
colonizing state, on the one hand, and foreign countries on the
other” (3)? He proposes two models: the first, “jealous exclusion”
of others from trade with the colony, will likely result in
dissension and warfare. The second, which Girault attributes to
“liberal imperial states,” allows the foreigner to trade on the same
basis as the colonizer and, in the process, prepares the colonized
peoples for eventual freedom. France, Girault maintains, tried both
in its long imperial history, often at the same time. Originally
published in the International Peace, Economic and History Series of
the Carnegie Endowment for International peace, this book is notable
for its textured historical analysis and its prescient
identification of the seeds of colonial collapse.
5. Goudsmit, J.E.
The Pandects: A Treatise on the Roman Law and Upon its Connection
with Modern Legislation. Translated from the Dutch by R. De
Tracy Gould. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1873. xx, [1], 368 pp.
Reprinted October 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN
1-58477-561-0. Cloth. $125.
* Reprint of the first and only edition. Goudsmit [1813-1882] was
professor of jurisprudence at the University of Leiden and a
preeminent scholar of Roman law. As its title suggests, this erudite
study has two parallel components. The largest is a thorough
topic-by-topic analysis of the Digest (or Pandects),
the vast compilation of jurisprudential writings from the Corpus
Juris Civilis. This is complemented with a running demonstration
of each topic’s relevance in contemporary European law. This study
is a valuable introduction to the Digest and a compelling
demonstration of its influence on European law at a time when
several nations were showing a renewed interest in codification.
6. McIlwain, Charles Howard.
Constitutionalism: Ancient and Modern. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1940. ix, 162 pp. Reprinted October 2005 by The
Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-550-5. Cloth. $75.
* Reprint of the first edition. Upon publication The Law
Quarterly Review praised this book, noting that “great learning
is manifest in these pages” (cited in Marke). McIlwain [1871-1968]
examines of the rise of constitutionalism from the “democratic
strands” in the works of Aristotle and Cicero through the
transitional moment between the medieval and the modern eras. He
concludes with a discussion of the forces of despotism that were
threatening constitutionally based individual freedom in the 1930s.
One of the twentieth century’s most distinguished scholars of
Anglo-American constitutional history, McIlwain was Eaton Professor
of the Science of Government in Harvard University and the author of
The High Court of Parliament and Its Supremacy (1910) and
The American Revolution: A Constitutional Interpretation (1924).
Both of these are available as Lawbook Exchange reprints.
7. Nicholls, Sir George.
A History of the Scotch Poor Law in Connexion with the Condition
of the People. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1856. x,
288 pp. Reprinted October 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN
1-58477-567-X. Cloth. $80.
* Reprint of the first and only edition. Nicholls [1781-1865] was a
pioneering poor-law reformer and administrator. While Great
Britain’s Poor Law Commissioner he drafted the Irish Poor-Law Act
(1832). One of the first to assert that relief bred a culture of
dependency and a resistance to work, he advocated the abolition of
relief except as a last resort. In addition to the present study, he
wrote A History of the English Poor Law (1854) and A
History of the Irish Poor Law (1856) both of which are
forthcoming (2006) in reprint editions by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.
Like his other studies, this one relates the evolution of poor laws
since the medieval era to economic, social and political history.
Notably sophisticated works, they were held in high regard by Sir
Leslie Stephen and F.W. Maitland.
8. Randolph, Sir John, and Barradall, Edward, Reporters. Barton,
R.T., Editor.
Virginia Colonial Decisions: The Reports of Decisions of the
General Court of
Virginia 1728-1741.
Edited, with Historical Introduction. Boston: the Boston Book
Company, 1909. Two volumes. xxviii, 250, 118; 394 pp. Frontispiece.
Reprinted October 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN
1-58477-510-6. Cloth. $175.
* These volumes contain all of the decided cases of colonial Virginia’s
chief court reported by Randolph [c.1693-1737] and Barradall [1704-1743].
Excepting a few cases reported later by Thomas Jefferson and William
Hopkins, these are all of the cases reported during the colonial
period. Invaluable sources for the early history of American law,
Barton commends these reports for “the picture they give of [Virginia’s]
colonial period in all its shades and aspects” and their ability
to “make the observer see what the more detailed narrative of
history fails to tell” (Preface iv). This set is further enriched
by Barton’s 250-page introduction, which outlines the legal system
of colonial Virginia and sets the reports in their social context.
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