concerning the nature of law and its relation to human affairs, as there are for the belief that the same materials are best adapted to equip one for the legal profession.

But there is a possibility of error in the direction of too intensive treatment. The business student will not as a rule be justified in spending as much time in the study of law as is spent by a professional law student in one semester's work. If he does choose to go this far, it is believed that professional law courses are better suited to his needs. Whatever time is allotted, he could, with profit, employ this. time in taking one or two regular law school courses. But it is believed that the average business student may spend, with greater value. to himself, the same amount of time upon a larger number of law subjects. By so doing there is some loss in educational value, in the knowledge of the law's historical development and in other respects; but there is a gain in acquaintance with a greater variety of legal problems common to modern business, which, it is believed, exceeds these losses.

Confronted, therefore, with the problems of selection and apportionment of topics, the present compilers have thought that the law of contracts in its general and some of its special aspects and the law relating to business associations should be treated, that approximately one-third of the time should be devoted to the general law of contracts, about one-fifth to partnerships and corporations, and the principal portion of the remainder to agency, negotiable instruments, and sales. This material has been organized with the view of aiding, as much as possible, the student's understanding of the subjects presented. The subjects are introduced in a natural order. The law of sales could have been taken up before negotiable instruments; but the reverse order was selected, so that the sections dealing with negotiable documents of title would appear more intelligible. Each part, obviously, deals with a particular legal relation or group of closely related legal relations. In each part, as a rule, the cases first taken up are concerned with the question: What facts will operate to produce the particular relation under discussion and what facts will not so operate? When we have once established what facts are essential to create a certain relation, cases dealing with the nature of the relation and the effects of facts subsequent to its creation are taken up.

Obviously there is a fairly wide range of possibilities in determining the order of treatment of facts subsequent to the creation of a particular relation. In fixing this order the compilers have been influenced chiefly by the desire so to arrange the topics that the student will be aided in visualizing the subject in its constituent parts and as a whole, and, it is hoped, in gaining some real knowledge concerning it. In the general law of contracts, after the development of the topics of offer, acceptance, and consideration, these ideas have led to the treatment of the important facts relating to performance and breach as they affect the normal contract. After noting the collateral operative effect of the contract upon third parties, attention is then paid to the facts that operate to discharge the relation, thus completing the picture of the

origin, nature, and termination of the normal contractual relation. With these ideas in the background, the student is then led to note the variation in operative effect caused by the introduction of the abnormal elements of fraud, mistake, duress, illegality, incapacity, and the noncompliance with the statute of frauds. The same ideas have been carried out in the other parts of the book, each chapter featuring either some distinctive and closely related groups of facts, or the nature, extent, and operation of a particular relationship between two parties.

It has also been thought desirable to introduce, very briefly indeed, some aspects of the pledge, the bailment, the contracts of affreightment, insurance, and suretyship, and some leading ideas of the law of damages and legal remedies, including a short summary of the Bankruptcy Act. It is conceded that, in the absence of a fairly extended development of some special topics, this fragmentary introduction of other special topics would be ill-advised. But it is believed that, with these correctives in plain view, there is some value in permitting the business student, for example, to read a few cases dealing with the special defenses of the surety, his rights of reimbursement, contribution, subrogation, and exoneration, and in taking some note of the nature and operation of common-law, equitable, and statutory remedies. Here and there throughout the volume, the opportunity presenting itself, cases drawn from other branches of the law were availed of, in part to illustrate the main subject then being developed, and in part to show concretely the existence of other departments of the law not taken up. This policy it was thought would tend to widen the student's perspective of the field of the law and also to make that portion of it which was selected for more intensive cultivation to appear in its true light, as a portion only of a legal system. This policy explains the use of several cases in agency dealing with various kinds of torts, the insertion of a case in the sections on assignment of contracts dealing with the declaration of trust, and it explains the use, in the chapter on performance of contracts, of a case concerned with the right of specific performance against a vendor of land whose wife refused to release her dower. A few cases from quasi contracts and equity, particularly on its remedial side, were set out for the same reason. Obviously there are many such topics of equal, perhaps greater, importance, which might have been dealt with in like manner. The law relating to the delivery of deeds is certainly of as much importance as the law relating to the delivery of a negotiable instrument, but no case dealing with the former problem was inserted. The idea, however, was not to bring into the discussion from other departments of the law only those cases which were deemed to be of more importance than those omitted, but rather to introduce a sufficient number of cases from other branches, to show that there were other fields of the law, and also to mark out some of the boundary lines of the legal system as a whole.

The various sections have not all been developed to the same degree. To some has been given a more intensive treatment than to

others, not always because of the actual or supposed importance of the matters involved over those not so intensively developed, but because of a desire to impress upon the mind of the student the fact that the legal aspects of any particular group of circumstances is capable of a much more extended study. If the leading idea were to impart information as to what should be done in certain eventualities, then the organization of materials would have been quite different; but it is believed that the value in such treatment would be of a transitory nature, obtained at too great a sacrifice of the scientific principle to be desirable.

In the selection of cases, the compilers have been guided by several considerations. In the first place, limitations of space prevent the development of the law historically and comparatively. Occasionally, however, modern cases have been inserted which contain historical discussions of the rules involved, and also some cases have been used to present conflicts of authority, enough, it is hoped, to show that the history of the law is a part of it, and that courts may differ, in a given case, as to what the rule should be, or as to the interpretation of an accepted rule, or as to its application to facts.

As a rule the older cases have been omitted, although they may be leading cases, and modern cases included, which discuss the leading authorities and show how they have been applied. This policy has caused the omission of such cases as Shadwell v. Shadwell, Price v. Neal, and Northern Pacific R. R. Co. v. Boyd. But it has not always been found possible to do this. Many cases have been inserted because of their facts, facts with which the student is likely to be familiar, or because of their present-day business importance, their dramatic value, or merely because they were modern. In the editing of cases, citations of authorities, as a rule, have been omitted. In the selection of all cases the compilers have kept in mind the important fact that the student is engaged in his study to learn something of the law as it is, and it is hoped that the cases selected will be found well adapted to this end.

Fully aware of the objections which may be raised to the use of the texts of the Uniform Acts relating to Negotiable Instruments, Sales, and Partnership as the points of departure for the study of these subjects, the compilers have nevertheless felt that the policy of setting out portions of the text at the beginning of chapters or sections before the introduction of cases was not only justifiable, but desirable. It is believed that this method makes for clearness, and also tends to facilitate the student's comprehension of the subject as a whole. Even in jurisdictions which have not enacted these Uniform Acts, it is believed that the common-law rules there in force may just as easily, if not more easily, be taught in this way. Moreover, the use of this method in the codified subjects, appearing alongside the development of uncodified branches, calls attention to the difference in juridical method, shows that concepts behind a statute are not solids, but fluids, that codification does not arrest development, and, perhaps, may furnish the occasion for noting the existence of some of the problems of juristic

science. Most of the cases dealing with negotiable instruments and sales have been cases decided under the Uniform Acts. Out of a total of 580 cases contained in the volume 379 have been decided since 1900. The compilers have also thought that it would be of some assistance to the student, in understanding the cases and in organizing the results of his work, to make some comments at the beginning of each subject, and also at the beginning of some of the chapters and sections, not, however, for the purpose of informing him with respect to certain principles of law to be taken up, but rather to indicate the nature of the legal problems with which the material immediately following is concerned. The short statement used as an introduction to the study of law was included for the purpose of giving the student some advance information as to the nature of the subject, the material used, the methods of study, and also to designate that portion of the law with which the book deals. A fairly extended list of definitions of legal terms was added for the convenience of the student.

In the preparation of this volume the compilers have been much assisted by the works of Professors Williston, Corbin, Mechem, Goddard, Brannan, Gilmore, Wormser, and Richards. A large part of the merit which this collection may possess is traceable to their scholarship and to the scholarly works of many others who have made contributions to the subjects surveyed in this book. A special debt is owed to Professor Corbin, whose writings have influenced to a marked degree the character of the introductory statements and the organization of material throughout the book. Grateful acknowledgment is also due Professor Lewis for his kind permission to reprint his scholarly notes to the Uniform Partnership Act and to the members of the faculty of the College of Commerce and Business Administration of the University of Illinois, for their helpful suggestions.

W. E. B.

R. S. B.

MARCH, 1922.