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Vanderbilt Law Review

First Page

1017

Abstract

The Politics of Justice: Lower Federal Judicial Selection and the Second Party System - Book Author: Kermit L. Hall; Book Reviewed by Lawrence M. Friedman

In The Politics of Justice, Kermit L. Hall, a history professor at Wayne State University, takes a look at the way Presidents from Jackson through Buchanan picked judges for the federal district courts and for the territories. There were 240 such appointments during the period studied...

There is something of a literature on the selection process,"although Hall's book does fill a rather glaring hole. The tale Hall tells rings true if we ignore a few overripe conclusions... We have activist courts, and an intensely political way of choosing judges. These two aspects of American law are certainly not unrelated. They fit each other like hand and glove. Through along, intricate historical dance of fate, they have become totally intertwined, and are now inseparable. How this came about and grew is an important part of our history, and The Politics of Justice makes a definite contribution to the telling.

Must Corporate Income Be Taxed Twice? - Reviewed by Allaire Urban Karzon

This study by Charles E. McLure, Jr. originated from a 1977 conference at the Brookings Institution,' which focused on the technical and administrative problems that would be encountered if this country were to integrate in any form the corporate and individual income taxes. "Must Corporate Income Be Taxed Twice?" is a feasibility study of integration in practice, not a policy evaluation of the social desirability of integration...

Before closing, some minor flaws in the book must be mentioned. Parts of its analysis are needlessly repetitive. McLure's style is not crisp. There is not sufficient recognition of the criticism, expressed mainly by the legal profession, that the proposed tax reforms discussed by McLure would introduce great and perhaps unjustified complexity to the Internal Revenue Code.' To some, reforms that are comprehensible only to technicians are not reforms. To some, simplification of the tax laws and certainty of consequences for taxpayers are objectives greatly to be desired...

McLure's review of the major questions that remain unanswered relating to the shareholder credit method, especially in the international context, leads to the inescapable inference that its adoption at this time would be premature. There are too many pitfalls that an uninformed, precipitous legislative move could unwittingly create.

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