Tuesday, March 28, 2017

St. John Green on Torts and Crime in 1875: The Kikuchi Notebooks

[With a hat tip to David J. Seipp, Professor of Law and Law Alumni Scholar, Boston University School of Law, we have the following announcement.]

Chuo University (Tokyo) has published law student notes (in English) taken by one of its founders, Takeo Kikuchi, while he studied at Boston University.  This volume contains three courses taught by Nicholas St. John Green (1830-1876) on Torts, Criminal Law, and Kent's Commentaries.  Green was the eldest member of the Metaphysical Club, which also included O.W. Holmes., C. Wright, C.S. Peirce, and W. James.  Not fully on board with Langdell's innovations, Green left Harvard for Boston University, and the few pieces that he published before his untimely death show him an innovative and profound theorist of tort liability.  The Kikuchi notebooks, which have been preserved in the archives of Chuo University, are transcribed and annotated, with a brief biography of Green, by David J. Seipp (B.U.), and introduced by Tatsuya Kitai (Chuo).  They are an example of law teaching during an interesting period of transition.  A limited number of copies of this publication are available to interested librarians and legal historians.  To receive one, send an e-mail to archive@tamajs.chuo-u.ac.jp with the subject line: "28th issue of Hist. Mats. of Chuo University" and include in the body of your e-mail your name, your address, the name of your institution, and the number of copies you request.