Book Review: The Law of Torts

Abstract

This is a one volume revised edition of Cooley's famous "Treatise on Torts." The book appears to be a much needed piece of work reasonably well done. As the editor himself suggests it is largely a re-writing of the original text. In the twenty some-odd years since the last edition great changes have taken place in this phase of the law and it would seem that nothing short of a complete re-statement of the original text would suffice. This has been undertaken by the editor with ability and diligence. The book is completely modern and the material is handled with skill and effectiveness. Advantage has been taken of the accumulation of scholarly investigations upon many problems of tort law during the last dozen years and frequent citations to these and to the periodical literature in general are to be found in the notes. The chapter on "Proximate Cause" appropriately inserted in the fore part of the book is a good illustration. The treatment of this tricky problem is about all that could be hoped for in an elementary book for students. Since this is a highly controversial subject among scholars in this field it is not surprising that the editor's treatment will not conform to the notions of many writers. In the opinion of this reviewer the light thrown on the subject by Professor Green has not been sufficiently presented. With the exception of Green's contributions most of the classic essays on the subject have been exploited.