Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-27
GRAVE CHARGE MADE
Hannis Taylor Accused of
Plagiarism.
LATEST WORK Is QUOTED
Dr.. Goudy of Oxford University
Compares Book With Muirhead's.
WHOLESALE FILCHING ALLEGED
Declares That Bounds of Legitimate
Appropriation Have Been Passed
in Chapter on Roman Law.
BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.

Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herald.
Hannis Taylor is ore of the highest
authorities on constitutional and inter
national law in the United States. He
has written a great deal upon both sub
jects and has published several works
which are used as text books in our
colleges, universities and law schools. He
is native of Alabama. a graduate of
the University of North Carolina. an
LID, from the universities of Edin-
burgh and Dublin: is professor of con-
stitutional and international law in George
| Washington University; has been minis
ter to Spain; has represented the gov
eminent counsel before the Alaska
boundary commission, and is now spe-
| cial counsel for the United States be-
| fore the Spanish claims commission His
reputation is international, and, there
| fore, when it is attacked it becomes q
| matter of national concern.
| The Juridical Review of Edinburgh. the
highest authority on legal questions in
Scotland. in the January number, con-
| tains an article entitled "Plagiarisnl-a
Fine Art" by Henry Cloudy, Del,
LID. regius professor of civil law at
Oxford. in which he charges Mr.. Taylor
with gross plagiarism in his latest work,
! The Science of Jurisprudence pub
| lished by the Macmillan Company last
summer So learned and able a man as
Mr.. Taylor will, of course, be able to
| take care of himself in the controversy,
and forceful and he uses the parallel
column with deadly effect.
| THE author is a prominent American.
| writes Prof. Cloudy. who has been at
one time representative of the United
| States in Spain, and has published books
| on International public law and other
topics, some of which have apparently
| acquired great popularity. i have not
| reading these. In the present work he
| has attempted to cover a large amount
+, of ground.
Taylor's Chapter on Roman Law.
1.-The chapter on Roman law is a long
one, extending through about $50 pages.
and aims at giving a survey of the
whole history of the law from the regal
period downward. Naturally, it first at
| tracted my attention and l began to
read it with interest Among
other works referred TO in the notes,
| although very sparngly is Prof. Muir
| heads Historical Introduction to the Law
| of Rome work we'll known to students
both in this country and abroad. AS
| editor Of the second edition of that work,
published in 1899, I am, of course, we'll
acquainted with it, and 1T struck me, on
| reading DR.. Taylor's chapter, that num-
| Der OF his sentences had a strangely
| familiar ring about them. / then pro-
ceeded carefully to compare the two
books, and l found to my establishment,
that not only were the ideas of Muirhead
appropriated wholesale. but that his very
words. or words of my own in the notes,
WERE in vast number of cases repro
duced, under a slight disguise, without
| the slightest acknowledgment Nay. more,
found that great mass of the elab-
crate references In the chapter TO con-
tinental authorities French German and
| Muirhead's book without the slightest in
dication of ever having been consulted
| by Dr. Taylor at all. Even slips that l
had marked for correction in new
edition have been reproduced. while al
most no reference Gn fact, SO far l
can see, none at alb has been made to
| continental authorities on Roman law
I later than 1899 dhe date when Muir
heads book was published.
| I'm short, nearly the whole of DR.. Tay-
! lors chapter i found to be gross pla giar-
ism. Where he has not pllaged Muir
head he has frequently appropriated the
stitutes'; frequently those of Greenidge.
| in his Roman Public Life; sometimes
those of other wEiters-usually, if not
invariably, without the slightest acknowl-
edgment.'
Parallel Columns Used.
In order to let his readers judge for them
| selves. Prof. Goudy resorts to parallel
columns in which he prints several long
passages from Muirhead beside passages
from Taylor. He also makes comparison
of other passages to snow what he calls
! DIR. Taylor's method of copying passages
| from different pages of Muirhead and
/ bringing them into juxtapositiOn as if
| they were consecutive.
7 s"Tn this DIR Tav1nr amends
! what long note, of which in substance
the first half has been taken without ac-
Acknowledgement from the text of Ledlie s
| translation first ed.) of Sohm's Insti-
| tutes' page %, II. Clio. The rest of the
note has apparently been taken from Pol
| lock and Maintland's History Of Interna-
tional English Law. j., p. g.
another method adopted by DR..
! Taylor" continues Prof. Goudy lis 10
transfer TO notes what is contained in
| Muirhead's text and vice versa" and he
| gives several examples
| ''Muirhead's and my own references To
| authorities for these statements (p go ~
81 are copied sIavishly, except that diritto is
| spelt diretto and DrOit rOmain is given
| as drOit romano.
| Another method OF the author is TO
dovetail passages from writer into
| those taken from another. especially into
| what he has taken from Muirhcad" Can
| example of that method is given as an
| illustration.)
| Even occasional mistakes in Muirhead
are, as l said, copied without attempt
at correction. Thus on p. 80 NJ, referring
| to Laracallas Constitution of Citizenship
he cites Ulpian In urbe Romano qui sunt
etc. Here urbc is an obvious misprint foI
orbe, but it appears without correction
| along with the context slightly changed.
Error in Quoting Note.
~ most striking illustra ton of the
plagia rizing hand of our author cit would
be highly amusing werc-it not SO serious
| will be found on page lix of his book
continues Prof. Cloudy. In the bibIi
ography given on that page thcre are
by the way, no less than fourteen pages
Of authorities cited altogether. but, as
above stated. hardly one continental write,
on Roman law later than 1899, the date
| of my edition of Muirhcad) will be found
the following:
| The OdOSian code and Post-Theodosiar
novels. For these two codes. edited on a
new plan, see Sd vol. Of Kruger, NJ. & s
Collectio lib. jur. Naturally the reader
will be puzzled, as l was at first puzzled
by the Post-Theodosian novels being called
q code. and he will search in vain for them
as we'll as for the Theodos. CODE in the
Sd vol. of Kruger. NJ. K s. But il he VII
turn to Muirhead. p. :'G7. n. g. he will find
the key to the puzzle He will see thai
our author has been too hasty I'm appro
priating that note. The two codes there
| referred to by Muirhead are the GreoOrfar