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38 S. African L.J. 152 (1921)
Reviews

handle is hein.journals/soaf38 and id is 182 raw text is: 152      TRE SOUTH AFRICAN LAW JOURNAL.
REVIEWS.
The Sale of Goods in South Africa, being a Handbook of the Law
Relating to the Purchase and Sale of Corporeal Movables in South
Africa. By Harold Graham Mackeurtan, LL.B. (Cantab.), K.C.,
of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, Advocate of the Supreme
Court of the Union of South Africa. Juta & Co., Ltd. 1921.
This long expected work has just come to hand. Within the last two
years two books have appeared on the Law of Sale, and there is a rumour
that publication of the present work was delayed so that the late
Advocate Norman's book might have the first market free from opposi-
tion. In a previous number of this JOURNAL we have reviewed that
book and given our testimony to the painstaking care with which it
was cempiled. After a year's constant use of the book we can only
endorse that opinion and state that in practice it has been and will be
found extremely serviceable.
It might then be asked what is the need for a further work on the
subject. The answer is that the present work is of quite a different
type. Books on law hitherto published in South Africa may be roughly
divided into three classes. Reprints of Statutes, with explanatory notes
and extracts of decided cases-an excellent work of this kind is the
Magistrates' Courts Act by Buckle and Jones. Secondly, compilations
of ancient Roman-Dutch and modern South African law on particular
subjects, among which we should give Advocate Norman's book a high
place. The books of the third class, at present a very limited one, deal
with a more limited subject in greater detail, and contain the author's
opinions on all matters of difficulty which have occurred to him. In
the last class would come two books under review in this number:
Mlackeurtan on Sale and Wille on Mortgage and Pledge.
The authbr of the present work raises all the difficulties which can
occur to an ingenious mind, and boldly faces them. There is no beating
about the bush or obscuring of the issue in a cloud of words. Where
there is a discrepancy in the decided cases or a doubt in the authorities,
the author states it--and gives a decided opinion on the point. In the
Preface he states:  I have not hesitated to criticise or to express
opinions upon doubtful points. Where these criticisms or opinions are
right, it is time they were recorded. Where they are wrong I antici-
pate speedy correction. In' either event some good will have been done
to the cause which has inspired this book.   The cause to which he
refers is  the duty of every South African lawyer to see (as far as he
can) that the Roman-Dutch System, of which we are now almost the
sole inheritors, is in no way obscured in its practical application by
undue reliance upon authorities other than our own. These quota-
tions show plainly the scope and intention of the work.

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