LAW AND JUSTICE 335 



Local Legislation. The main currents of the past year or two in law and legislation 

 having been indicated, a brief notice may be added of some of the special matters with 

 which individual nations have been concerning themselves. Reference should be made, 

 in this connection, to the accounts of separate countries in Part II of the YEAR-BOOK, 

 notably in the case of the various states of the United States. 



Austria. Austria has lately been celebrating the centenary of its Civil Code. An 

 interesting account of its history is given by Dr. Tisch. Divorce law in Austria, which is 

 founded on the Code, still retains, Dr. Tisch says, the "confessional or ecclesiastical basis." 

 In the case of Catholics, or even where one spouse only is a Catholic, the bond of marriage can 

 only be dissolved by death. Where both spouses are non-Catholics the marriage may be 

 dissolved by mutual consent if an insuperable disinclination is proved before the tribunal, or 

 on complaint of one of the spouses for certain matrimonial offences. 



A Code for Domestic Service in Vienna has lately been enacted by the Austrian Parlia- 

 ments, defining concisely the respective rights of master and servant, mistress and maid. 



The regulation of the Bar in Austria is also before the House of Deputies. The object is 

 to prevent overcrowding by exacting higher qualifications and to prevent retired Judges 

 swelling the competition. 



Belgium. Belgium has amended the whole of its Maritime Commercial Code. 



Brazil. Legislation here has been mainly concerned with bankruptcy and negotiable 

 instruments. A copyright law has also been passed in favour of foreign authors, giving 

 them the same privileges as native authors. 



France. France has been establishing old age pensions for workmen and peasants. 

 Regulations have also been made for the health and safety of miners Another law facilitates 

 the acquisition of small rural holdings by allowing the agricultural banks to spread their 

 advances over a period not exceeding fifteen years. 



The growing importance of comparative law is illustrated in the fact that France has 

 created an office of foreign legislation and international law. The full text of the decree will 

 be found in No. xxv of the Journal of Comparative Legislation, p. 175. 



Germany. Germany has completed her scheme for compulsory _ insurance of Corkers. 

 A new scheme of similar insurance for persons such as clerks with a higher scale of income is 

 now being formulated. 



In the matter of copyright, Germany, while adopting with a number of useful innovations 

 the modifications of the Bern Convention of 1908, has not seen its way to lengthen the period 

 of protection to 50 years as the British Copyright Act 1911 has done. 



Another noticeable statute is that extending the liability of the Imperial Exchequer for 

 breaches of duty on the part of Imperial officials. 



In England a person keeping an animal not ferae naturae is only liable for its mischief 

 if he had reason to know that it is savage. This is expressed in popular language by saying 

 that a dog is entitled to its first bite. This "scienter" doctrine is too lax owing to the 

 difficulty of proving knowledge. In Germany on the other hand the law was too strict. 

 A person keeping an animal was liable for all damage caused by it. Under a new law a 

 person keeping a domesticated animal for purposes of his profession or trade or of his main" 

 tenance, is not liable for any damage caused by such animal if in keeping watch over it he has 

 used reasonable diligence or if the damage could not have been avoided by the use of reason- 

 able diligence. This is fair. But the protection, it may be noted, is not extended to animals 

 kept for. sport or otherwise. 



India. The Indian Councils Act has made great changes in the constitution and func- 

 tions of the Legislative Councils (see Sir C. Ilbert in Journal of Comp. Leg., No, xxiv), 

 and the Press Act has been passed to check the licence of some native newspapers. 



Italy. The state has been taking over all life insurance business. 



Japan. Hardly anything in the development of nations, has been more remarkable than 

 the rapid transformation in Japan of the old regime into the new: but with all its innovations 

 it would be misleading to say, as it has been said, that Japan in its new Civil Code has 

 "thrown over its whole existing legal system." Sir Henry Maine has noted in his Ancient 

 Law the remarkable persistency among the Romans of the patria potestas. No less remark- 

 able is its sway in Japan under what is called "the power of the family head." It still 

 dominates all rival legal conceptions. In the political sphere this is illustrated in the Japa- 

 nese fidelity for 2550 years to the Imperial dynasty as head of the great family of the state 

 the supreme pater familias. But it is "pretty to observe," as Mr. Pepys would say, how this 

 doctrine of the patria potestas this imperium in imperio is, under the influence of modern 

 ideas, passing through the same changes as in ancient Rome. Roman opinion tempered by 

 degrees that strange domestic despotism, and there were duties attaching to the patriarchal 

 head, such as the moral obligation to provide for all members of the family out of the common 

 fund, which balanced the rights. In modern Japan the old feudal absoluteness of the 

 family head has gone; the Japanese Court of Appeal has decided that his powers are to be 

 exercised "only for the best interests of, and when necessary for the administration of, the 

 house," and "if injustices are alleged the Court is to investigate them and set aside, if neces- 



