PLAN OF THE WORK The following is a brief outline of the text, giving the teacher an idea of the author's plan of development, after fifteen years as a teacher of the subject in commercial and high schools and seven years as a teacher of common law in Chicago law schools. 1. The topical outlines given at the beginning of each chapter are to enable the instructor to follow the general development of the chapter without paying any attention to the text matter. This outline could be used as a blackboard outline if desired. There is a certain continuity in each chapter that should be followed by the teacher from the beginning to the end, together with such illustrations as he may deem desirable. Then a study of a few selected cases should clinch the idea and enable the student to begin that differentiation of facts and conditions that is so important in all departments of law. No legal education is quite so liable to erroneous conclusions as that built on a knowledge of cases where the student has not mastered the legal principles that underlie and that should enable him to differentiate between the facts of several cases that are applicable in whole or in part to the facts under consideration. 2. The development of the principles of law is in logical order, and a sequence in presentation is pursued in each chapter. Whenever it is thought necessary or desirable, illustrations are used. 3. The recapitulation at the end of each chapter should be valuable to the student for short reviews. 4. The sets of questions are given that the student may form an idea of the method used in determining the character of the text. 5. The lists of decisions contain very carefully selected cases stating the application of the law. A case is the result of a trial. In any given case certain facts are alleged to exist on one side and certain other facts or contra ones on the other side. The greater weight of evidence establishes the facts of the case; the law is applied to these facts, and the decision arrived at. When duly entered of record, it constitutes the judgment of the court. The recapitulations and decisions by the courts should afford the student a splendid opportunity for a thorough review. 6. The hypothetical problems present sets of facts as they exist to which the student may apply legal principles in arriving at a conclusion. They also afford ample field for discussion. 7. The construction work given should be made use of to the fullest extent. The study of commercial law produces greater benefit to the student by developing his ability to fill out properly the papers used in the business world than in training him to answer abstruse legal questions. 8. The search questions are to direct the student's attention to the laws of the particular state in which he lives. For example: The corporation is recognized by the general government and each of the forty-eight states as an association of individuals for the purpose of conducting business. Yet no two of the several state governments have exactly the same laws for the organization and maintenance of such a business association. Therefore it becomes necessary to study the legal details in the particular state in which the student lives. But to study the statutes of his state alone in reference to corporations, would give him but a meager and hazy idea of a corporation. As a matter of fact, the state law is but the legal machinery to put the corporation engine in running order. The student must study the common law to get a knowledge of the general mechanism of corporations. State laws are in reality rules and regulations for the conduct of the affairs of mankind rather than the laying down, development, or determination of a legal principle; and these rules and regulations are being constantly changed, yet the common law principles of several centuries' standing are practically unchanged. The state laws or state statutes are not necessarily built on principles of the common law or conditions long established, but on what the people conceive to be the proper solution of economic or other conditions that exist to-day, and therefore require special attention. A knowledge of the statutes of a state does not constitute a legal education. It is a source of information in which social, economic, or political rights of to-day are readjusted to the legal principles of long established recognition. The next legislature may change the whole procedure. The principles underlying the common law are woven into the entire fabric of human progress and may not be denied, but are susceptible to restriction and change in their course by statutory enactment and even by judicial interpretation. 9. The glossary containing the definition of legal terms is given for reference purposes. The student should have at hand a good law dictionary as well as a recognized unabridged dictionary. Short Course. If the time allotted is short and the teacher desires to emphasize certain phases of commercial law rather than to hurry through a longer course, the following topics are suggested as offering a practical course: contracts, agency, partnership, bailments, corporations, and negotiable paper, emphasizing the first and the last. BIBLIOGRAPHY Reference books that would be of great value and assistance. Several are named on most of the subjects discussed in the text. One should be procured on each subject. The books named have been selected with special reference to their style and contents. The publishers' names are as follows and will be referred to by number: No. I. West Publishing Co..... No. 2. T. H. Flood & Co.. No. 3. Callaghan & Co.... No. 4. Little, Brown & Co.... No. 5. F. H. Thomas Law Book Co..... St. Paul, Minn. . Boston, Mass. A short list of books that should be available: Bishop on Contracts (No. 2) Tiedman Bills and Notes (No. 5) Sedgwick on Damages (No. 4) This book contains abstracts of several hundred cases. Price, $7.50 . Price, $4.00 . Price, $6.00 Price, $3.50 . Price, $3.00 Additional books of high standing and well adapted to student work: |