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"A good government," Albert Einstein said recently, "not only gives its citizens a maximum amount of liberty and political rights but also provides for a certain amount of economic security."' Our Constitution provides for political rights and liberties but not for economic security. Unlike foreign federal constitutions it neither provides for it directly nor delegates social legislation to the states; nor does the Constitution expressly prohibit this type of law. As, however, the Constitution authorizes the states to exercise powers not reserved to the central government, it may be deduced that unemployment relief legislation is within the competence of the states, at least if it stays within the confines of other provisions limiting state power, such as the Contract Clause of Article I, Section 10, and the Fourteenth Amendment. Inasmuch as these limitations, however, do not appear to be relevant for our discussion it can be stated plainly that the states have legislative jurisdiction pertinent to unemployment compensation. Yet many of the states either cannot or do not want to act on matters of social welfare. The reasons for this inertia have been exposed convincingly by Senator Neuberger and need not be explored here. Suffice it to say that what is true now was true in the 1930's: some of the states had workable unemployment relief laws but many others approached the problem feebly and reluctantly. It was, as is so often the case, the Federal Government to whom everybody looked.

The age-old rule of the common law that a citizen may not seek redress from the government for wrongs committed by the latter is often restated in the form of two maxims. One is that "the king can do no wrong." It refers to "wrongs" in the narrower sense of the word, meaning torts and related delicts. It has its counter part if not origin in the Roman-Byzantine holding, princeps legibus solutus est.' Many modern countries and some states have abrogated the rule. The other maxim, "the sovereign cannot be sued without his consent," precludes any law suit, not merely in tort, against the government unless it "consents." This latter rule has no counterpart in the civil law, which has not objected to contractual suits against the "fisc" since time immemorial. As a matter of fact, the fisc of the civil law countries is usually conceived as a juristic person existing for the very purpose of enabling the state to be a plaintiff or defendant in a civil litigation.

Originally published in 1947 under title: 290 questions and answers on labor law. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Governmental Liability By H. Street New York: Cambridge University Press, 1953. Pp. 221. $5.00. reviewer: Ferdinand F. Stone ====================================== Roman Law and Common Law: A Comparison in Outline, Second Ed. By W. W. Buckland and Arnold D. McNair. Revised by F. H. Lawson New York: Cambridge University Press, 1952.Pp. xii, 439. $7.00. reviewer: Reginald Parker

Includes Federal legislation. ; Includes index. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Readings in Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy By Morris R. Cohen and Felix S. Cohen New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1951. Pp. viii, 944, $8.50 ================================ Jurisprudence: Men and Ideas of the Law By Edwin W. Patterson Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1953. Pp. viii, 649. ================================== Jurisprudence -- Its American Prophets By Harold Gill Reuschlein Introduction by Roscoe Pound Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1951. Pp. xii, 527, $7.50 ================================== Law and Society in Evolution By Sidney Post Simpson and Julius Stone Introduction by Roscoe Pound St. Paul: West Publishing Co.,1948. Pp. xlvi, 692 ===================================== Law in Modern Democratic Society By Sidney Post Simpson and Julius Stone Introduction by Roscoe Pound St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1949. Pp. xlii, 1952 ====================================== Law, Totalitarianism and Democracy By Sidney Post Simpson and Julius Stone Introduction by Roscoe Pound St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1949. Pp. xlii, 2389 reviewer: Jay W. Murphy =============================== The Strange Case of Algier Hiss By The Earl Jowitt. Garden City: Doubleday, 1953. Pp. 380. reviewer: Edmund M. Morgan =============================== The New Science of Politics By Eric Voegelin Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1952. Pp. xiii, 193. $3.00. reviewer: Reginald Parker