A Legislator Looks at Legislation

Abstract

N i ' OT since Bentham's Principles of Morals and Legislation has there appeared in English a study of legislation so pretentious as this four-volume work of the Honorable Robert Luce. Yet this comparison might well be odious to both authors. Bentham was concerned, as the title of his work shows, almost exclusively with principles: not only of legislation but also, if not indeed primarily, of morals. His work was put inside a single volume,was pungently even dogmatically written, was sectarian in point of view (hedonic), and was done almost deductively from beginning to end. In a word, Bentham's work was a philosophy of legislation. Mr. Luce's work is not a philosophy but a manual (though published under the title of "Science of Legislation"). True, it is loosejointed in scope (four large volumes), it is free-associational in method, it is eclectic in outlook, it is anecdotal in its inditement But it remains a manual-a manual deferential to history and tolerant of variety but preoccupied primarily with practice. (Would that every author furnished his manual with as complete an index as each volume here has!). Unlike Bentham's work, this comprehensive discussion is focused on the legislative arena: its counsels are redolent of debate (seeing I Four volumes by Robert Luce. Boston and New York: Houghton Miffin Co. Reference is made to the volumes in the following order: I. Legislative Procedure: Parliamentary Practices and the Course of Business in the Framing of Statutes. I922. Pp. vi+628. $5.00. II. Legislative Assemblies: Their Framework, Make-up, Character, Characteristics, Habits, and Manners. I924. Pp. vi+69i. $6.oo. III. Legislative Principles: The History and Theory of Lawmaking by Representative Government. I930. Pp. vi+667. $6.oo. IV. Legislative Problems: Development, Status, and Trend of the Treatment and Exercise of Lawmaking Powers. I935. Pp. vi+762. $6.oo.