McLaughlin, Andrew C. The Courts, The Constitution and Parties. Studies in Constitutional History and Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1912. vii, 299 pp. Reprinted 2001 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 00-058812. ISBN 1-58477-155-0. Cloth. $95. * "This volume is composed of five papers or addresses. Two of them are careful historical discussions of the origin of the American doctrine that courts can declare acts of the legislature void; a third shows the influence of theories of political philosophy upon the ante-bellum controversy regarding the nature of the Union; and the remaining two consider the significance of American political parties and their real function in popular government. The two papers first mentioned seem to be contributions of great and permanent value to the discussion of their topic. The style of all of these essays is easy and delightful and their argument sane, thoughtful, and persuasive." J.P.H. Harv. L. Rev. 26:280-281 cited in Marke, A Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University (1953) 377.

Examines the Impact of the Idealism of the Personal Liberty Laws of Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin The Personal Liberty Laws reflected the social ethical commitment to freedom from slavery and as such were among the bricks that laid the foundation for the Fourteenth Amendment. Morris examines those statutes as enacted in the five representative states Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin, and argues that these laws were an alternative to the violence allowed by the southern slave codes and the extreme abolitionist viewpoints of the north. Thomas D. Morris [1938-] taught in the Department of History, Portland State University and is the author of Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860. CONTENTS I. Slavery and Emancipation: the Rise of Conflicting Legal Systems II. Kidnapping and Fugitives: Early State and Federal Responses III. State "Interposition" 1820-1830: Pennsylvania and New York IV. Assaults Upon the Personal Liberty Laws V. The Antislavery Counterattack VI. The Personal Liberty Laws in the Supreme Court: Prigg v. Pennsylvania VII. The Pursuit of a Containment Policy, 1842-1850 VII. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 IX. Positive Law, Higher Law, and the Via Media X. Interposition, 1854-1858 XI. Habeas Corpus and Total Repudiation 1859-1860 XII. Denouement Appendix Bibliography Index

Beard, Charles A. The Supreme Court and the Constitution. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1912. vii, 127 pp. Reprinted 1999 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 98-50368. ISBN 1-886363-78-1. Cloth. $45. * A thorough analysis of the early history and development of judicial review, from 1787 through Marbury v. Madison. "A strong argument that the constitutional fathers intended to establish judicial review." Carr, The Supreme Court and Judicial Review 293. "The book is based on the most exhaustive examination which has so far been made of the expressed opinions of the men who were most responsible for the adoption of the United States Constitution." Col. L. Rev. 13:87 as cited in Marke, A Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University 172. Chapters include "The Constitutional Convention of 1787 and Judicial Control," "John Marshall and the Fathers," and "Marbury v. Madison."

In this volume Oldroyd recounts the events leading up to and following the assassination, including several chapters on the trials of the conspirators. Oldroyd recounts in great detail the trip he took in May, 1901, in which he traced the route that John Wilkes Booth took during his escape and capture and interviewed several who aided the assassin in high flight. Oldroyd's account is enhanced by his references to the many sources in his collection and augmented further in the accompanying 82 illustrations.

Bentham, Jeremy. A Fragment on Government. Edited with an Introduction by F.C. Montague. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1891. xii, 241 pp. Reprinted 2001 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-166-6. Cloth. $65. * Bentham's first published work, an essay on sovereignty that criticizes Blackstone's Commentaries and attacks contemporary views on politics and law. This edition includes F.C. Montague's scholarly introduction that shows the significance of the Fragment and includes a biography of Bentham [1748-1832] and a discussion of his role in the history of jurisprudence. "The Fragment on Government is primarily a criticism. If it were nothing more, it would have no interest for later generations, which do not regard Blackstone as an authority upon speculative questions of politics or history, and therefore do not need to have Blackstone's theories corrected or disproved. But in criticizing Blackstone's views, Bentham necessarily expounds his own. As Bentham is one of the few English writers of mark upon the theory of political institutions, and as his doctrine forms a link in the chain of English political philosophy, we still read the Fragment of Government in order to see, not how far Blackstone was wrong, but how far Bentham was right.": Introduction 59.

Fuller, Lon L. The Law in Quest of Itself. Boston: Beacon Press, 1966. [vi], 150 pp. Reprinted 1999 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 99-32863. ISBN-13: 978-1-58477-016-9. ISBN-10: 1-58477-016-3. Cloth. $60.* Three lectures by the Harvard Law School professor examine legal positivism and natural law. In the course of his analysis Fuller discusses Kelsen's theory as a reactionary theory, and Hobbes' theory of sovereignty. He defines legal positivism as the viewpoint that draws a distinction "between the law that is and the law that ought to be..." (p.5) and interprets natural law as that which tolerates a combination of the two. He looks at the effects of positivism's continued influence on American legal thinking and concludes that law as a principle of order is necessary in a democracy.

Originally published in 1814, this is a reprint of the Yale University Press 1950 edition with an introduction by Roy Franklin Nichols. 562 pp. Taylor wrote this important work in 1814 as a reply to John Adams's Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. Unlike Adams, he rejects the concept of "a natural aristocracy" of "paper and patronage" and a federal government based on a system of debt and taxes. He considers the American government to be one of divided powers responsible to the sovereign people alone. Opposed to the extent of power awarded to the executive office, he calls for shorter terms for the president and all elected officers. Charles Beard said this work "deserves to rank among the two or three really historic contributions to political science which have been produced in the United States." JOHN TAYLOR [1753-1824] was known as "John Taylor of Caroline County, Virginia." He served in the Continental Army and later in the Virginia House of Delegates, then served three terms as a member of the United States Senate. He is considered to be one of the nation's greatest philosophers of agrarian liberalism. He was one of the nation's first proponents of states' rights. His works include New Views of the Constitution of the United States (1823), Construction Construed, and Constitutions Vindicated (1820) and A Defence of the Measures of the Administration of Thomas Jefferson. By Curtius (1804), an argument in favor of the achievements of the first Jefferson administration.