22 JULY 1938, Page 34

CURRENT LITERATURE

Professor Keith's books on the constitutional structure of the British Empire are, as everybody knows, indispensable works of reference. But which books ? Poor students and libraries of limited means cannot afford them all. They follow each other at regulai intervals, improved mOdels of a well-known design. It is inevitable that the appearance of a new model should depreciate the value of its predecessors, or at least some of them. This fact may tend to frighten away buyers. Might it not be better to wait a few years until a still further improved model appears ? The present book (Macmillan, 25s.) supersedes The Sovereignty of the British Dominions published in 1929, and The Constitutional Law of the British Dominions, published in 1932. But it is unlikely that the present book will itself be superseded for a considerable time. The constitutional transformation . of the British Commonwealth is now to all intents and purposes complete; if important changes are still to come, they are likely to be of a different character from those of the past twenty years, and will need to be examined by a different method. The library which wishes to buy selectively may content itself with the 1928 edition of Resppnrible Government in the Dominions and the present volume. ..The student who wants Professor Keith's help in keeping abreast of constitu- tional law and practice in the British Commonwealth will do well to read his regular notes in the Journal of Comparative Legislation. There are in addition the Letters on Imperial questions, which are from time to time collected between covers. These represent a less academic commentary. Some- times they are frankly partisan, like some of the statements (e.g., in eulogy of Lord Craigavon) to which Dr. Keith commits himself in the preface to the book under review.