New Commentaries on the Law of England. (Partly founded on Blackstone)

Vol. I. (.IV.) Oktav. (1: 1841) XXV, 588 S.; (2: 1842) XII, 622 S.; (3: 1844) XI, 744 S.; (4: 1845) X, 572 S. 4 zeitgemäße, hellbraune Kalbslederbände. ERSTE AUSGABE! Serjeant Stepen`s Commentaries are a rejuvination of Sir William Blackstone`s. The Hitherto usual method of editing the latter is to preserve the text entire, and to present the changes that the law has undergone since he wrote, in the form of notes. Serjeant Stephen drops the obsolete parts of Blackstone altogether, ans aims at furnishing an elementary exposition of the English Law as it exists at the present day. His commentaries are a compound of Blackstone and Stephen, not a new edition of the former, nor an entirely new work of the latter. Those parts of the old Commentaries retained in the new, are distinguished by means of brackets, so that one is never at loss to know whether he is reading Blackstone or Stephen. The new Commentaries have been so recently published that their merits or defects have not been much canvassed, but from the author`s well known legal reputation, it is probable that no material inaccuracies will be found, though the first edition of every work of magnitude ordinarily contains some omissions or misstatements, which the greatest vigilance and care cannot avoid, and which a careful revision will briung to light. The matter of the New Commentaries is disposed in an agreeable and chaste style, in mode of illustration, they favorably compare with their precdecessors. "We are not quite willing to recommend the American law student to dispense with the reading of Blackstone in the original, but we are prepared to say, that in our opinion, the second persual of the Commentaries should hereafter be made in the work of Mr. Stephen." (Marvin 665) Die amerikanische Ausgabe erschien erstmals zu New York 1843-46.