States Supreme Court might, on occasion, be required to construe French and Spanish and Dutch law, as it existed long before certain territories, out of which states have since been made, were acquired from France and Spain and Holland. In London, there are the three law libraries of the Inns of Court, and a library maintained within the Royal Courts; there is also the library of the Incorporated Law Society, and the British Museum. In none of these is there any thing like a complete collection of the statutory law of the English Colonies and of the United States. Most of the Colonies are fairly well represented, but in the statutes of the United States all the libraries are lamentably deficient. This is due, for the most part, to ignorance of the geography and the form of government of the United States, an igno rance which is conspicuous in many of the otherwise best informed members of the English Bar. There should be, somewhere in London, a complete collection of the reports not simply of the United States Supreme Court, but of the courts of last resort of all the states. But as long as the American judges have the absurd and silly custom of writing pages upon pages to express opinions which really great judges, like Kent and Story, would have compressed into as many lines, or which an English judge would have deliv ered orally in a sentence or two, no one library can afford shelf-room to accommodate the out-put. A plan has been suggested by which the various libraries, particularly of the Inns of Court, might combine to furnish these reports to
- those who care to consult them, and in the very remote
future it may be adopted. But even now all the law libra ries ought to contain the federal and the state statutes, and the session acts up to date. The only one of the libraries which makes a pretense of keeping a useful list of Ameri can books, is that of the Middle Temple. The benchers of the Inn have recently ordered what is practically a com plete set of the statutes of all the States, and these, it is announced, are to be maintained in a workable state. Sir Courtenay Ilbert's paper not only drew attention to the lack of a complete collection in England of the legis lative enactments of the British Colonies and the United States, but suggested that it was improbable that any such collection existed anywhere, and urged the usefulness, first, of amassing this information in some one central and easily accessible place, and, afterwards, of digesting and compar ing it in a volume or volumes, after the style adopted by Mr. Stimson in his digest of the United States statutory laws. As a result of this paper a meeting was called by the Lord Chancellor to consider the best means of furthering the study of comparative legislation. This meeting was held in December last, and was attended by an even more representative body of lawyers, legislators and sociologists than were present to hear Sir Courtenay Ilbert's paper. As a result a Society of Comparative Legislation was formed, with the Lord Chancellor as its permanent president; a council embracing the foremost representatives of the Bench and Bar and the universities, together with the am bassadors of the United States and France, and an execu tive committee selected not only to represent the various parts of the English-speaking world, but to secure a work ing organization. The committee has as yet not issued its
scheme, but will shortly do so. It hopes to make the society genuinely useful to practicing lawyers, jurists, stu dents of sociology and legislators. Upon a larger and more complete scale, so far at least as the science of juris prudence is concerned, it will endeavor to do for Great Britain and her colonies, and the United States, what the American Bar Association is trying to do for the states of the Union, in the way of enforcing a uniform and syste matic code of laws where there is now diversity and con flict. It will go further, and, by collating, digesting and arranging the laws, set their essential features forth in a volume or series of volumes, so that, for example, an Ameri can lawyer desiring to know the law of England, the Aus tralasian Colonies, or India, on a given subject, may at once inform himself without the necessity of consulting the statutes or codes of these communities. When it is re membered that in the British Empire there are some sixty legislatures, and nearly fifty in the United States, and that these are constantly employed in passing acts relating to commercial law, the general administration of justice, capi tal and labor, marriage and divorce, the regulation of the sale of intoxicating liquors, education, railways, incorpo rate companies, bankruptcy, and merchant shipping and mercantile law, it will readily be seen how extensive the scope of the society may legitimately become. Even if the practicing lawyer has no need to use in the trial of a case or the preparing an opinion, the information which may thus be furnished, he may still employ it to illustrate an argument, to inquire into the reasons that lie at the founda tion of a system, or to suggest a useful modification or a radical change in the law of his own community. The method of carrying out the proposed work is a subject for careful consideration. It has been suggested that, as a matter of first importance, a standing committee be appointed with a view to obtain information as to the existing statute law of England and her dependencies and the United States, more particularly as to the form of statute and written law, modes of preparing and passing bills, revision and amendments of statutes, form and manner of publication of statutes, and their consolidation and codification and indexing. Communication will be es tablished, so far as the United States is concerned, with the American Bar Association, the judges of the courts, the heads of the law schools, the editors of the law periodicals and the officers of the various local law societies. The co-operation of these authorities will be warmly wel comed, and branch and corresponding societies throughout the States will be encouraged. It is probable that an inter national conference will be held as frequently as may be convenient for the purpose of discussing questions of in terest to the legal profession and the public. In Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland such gatherings are annually held, and are productive of great good to the profession. It is remarkable that no meetings, at least upon the line proposed by the Society of Comparative Legislation, have ever been convened in Great Britain or elsewhere in the Empire. Such a convention, with representatives from the leading lawyers of the United States and the Colonies in attendance, would be a notable occasion, and an event 10 which every lawyer and jurist would look forward with the keenest interest.
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