Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2018 April 29

= April 29 =

Railway Liability Act
I'm looking in a journal article that refers to the British "Railway Liability Act (1864)". I'm not seeing that listed at either List of Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, 1860–1879 or Railways Act. Can someone confirm whether this legislation really exists? Is the title or date wrong? SpinningSpark 11:02, 29 April 2018 (UTC)
 * There was an 1863 Railway Clauses Act, an 1864 Railway Companies Powers Act, and an 1868 Regulation of the Railways Act. There does not appear to have been any UK act with the title of Railway Liability Act. The 1864 Act is not listed on the UK site as that only includes Acts which still have effect, so that one must have been completely superseded. It does, however, still appear to be in effect in Ireland - http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1864/act/120/enacted/en/print.html Wymspen (talk) 16:41, 29 April 2018 (UTC)
 * It's this . 92.233.138.253 (talk) 17:17, 29 April 2018 (UTC)
 * The reference that 92.233.138.253 gives is to the Fatal Accidents Amendment Act (1864) (27 & 28 Vict c.28) (not to be confused with the Fatal Accidents Act (1864) (27 & 28 Vict c.95)). This Act was an amendment to Lord Campbell's Act (9 & 10 Vict c.93). Tevildo (talk) 18:27, 29 April 2018 (UTC)
 * There is an annual publication, currently called the "Public General Acts and General Synod Measures [year]", colloquially known as the "Statute Book".  Each Act is given a chapter number, in the order in which they receive the Royal Assent.   The citation is title; year; chapter.   Until the last century the regnal year was cited as well.   If we turn to the Statute Book for 1864, chapter 28 is headed "Common Law Procedure Amendment (Ireland) Act ".   Chapter 95 is headed "An Act to Amend the Act Ninth and Tenth Victoria, chapter Ninety-three, for compensating the Families of Persons killed by Accident".   Note that the citation corresponds to Lord Campbell's Act. 86.16.15.70 (talk) 18:55, 30 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Note that short titles are fluid.  While chapter numbers identify Acts positively, chapter 95 of 1864 is sometimes referred to as the "Fatal Accidents Act 1864" and sometimes as the "Fatal Accidents Amendment Act 1864". 86.16.15.70 (talk) 19:45, 30 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Sorry about that, the "28" appears to be an OCR error from a book published in 1920. However, this doesn't really answer the OP's question, in that we've not yet found a source that refers to either the main 1846 act or the 1864 act as the "Railway Liability Act". Tevildo (talk) 20:37, 30 April 2018 (UTC)
 * If it helps, here is the exact quote I am looking at: "A string of horrendous rail crashes in Britain in the mid-1800s aroused widespread public fear, prompting the British parliament to enact the Railway Liability Act (1864) providing financial damages to anybody injured in a rail collision." (Dembe, "The Medical Detection of Simulated Occupational Injuries: A Historical and Social Analysis") So if that exact name does not exist, the question becomes, what 1864 did establish this legal principle? SpinningSpark 09:27, 5 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Here's a timeline:


 * At common law the maxim actio personalis moritur cum personam applies, which means that if someone dies through the fault of another the relatives cannot claim compensation (the Latin means "a personal right of action dies with the person").
 * The new railway companies brought in an insurance scheme, but they were not happy to see the rule changed because that would cost them money.
 * Juries were filling the gap by reviving the old common law remedy of deodands.
 * Two pieces of legislation were brought in - in 1846 deodands were abolished and in the same year the Fatal Accidents Act gave personal representatives the right to claim compensation from whoever was responsible for the death.  This was a general change in the law - it wasn't limited to railway companies.
 * Many relatives were too poor to go through the procedures required before they could administer the estate, so by the Fatal Accidents Act 1864 the law was changed so that they no longer needed to do this.  Once again this was a general law change, not targeting railway companies specifically.
 * This legislation was Chapter 95 in the Statute Book - the Statute Book is here and you can read the exact text (it only contains a couple of sections).
 * You can browse the rest of the book to confirm that no statute entitled "Railway Liability Act" was passed that year. 88.104.145.140 (talk) 17:39, 5 May 2018 (UTC)

Finding a tikkun soferim
According to Tikkun (book) there are books called "tikkun soferim" which help Torah scribes to make their own opies of the Torah. The footnote linsk to a page that has excerpts from such a book. But where cn I find such a book? Is there a publisher that sells them? Googing hasn't helped because of the similarly named Tiqqun soferim throwing up false results.Thanks. Amisom (talk) 15:50, 29 April 2018 (UTC)
 * I believe high-quality tikkun kore'im are intended to function as tikkun soferim as well. Some are explicitly advertised as such. הסרפד  (call me Hasirpad) 17:08, 29 April 2018 (UTC)
 * any in particular you could recommend?Amisom (talk) 17:47, 29 April 2018 (UTC)

It used to be common for Jewish bookshops to sell a tikkun soferim and a tikkun korim, the former for a sofer and the latter for those who wish to learn leining. The practical difference was that the former had no "easy side", with a regular Hebrew font, vowels, punctuation and trop (none of which appear in the sefer torah) as the sofer doesn't need to refer to it, merely copy the "hard side". I've not seen a tikkun soferim for years. In my opinion, the best tikkun korim on the market is the "simanim" edition. A quick Googling found it for sale online, but a decent Jewish bookstore near you will probably have several in stock. You can find people discussing this and other editions here, including a sample page from the Simanim, and a pretty good list of some of its [actually quite groundbreaking] features and benefits. It's amazing how a book that's had utility for thousands of years has come on in leaps and bounds in the last 30 or so, thanks to one publisher's creativity. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 15:47, 30 April 2018 (UTC)
 * I also had the Simanim edition in mind. הסרפד  (call me Hasirpad) 16:15, 2 May 2018 (UTC)