Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/190

 Review of Legal Articles of Experts, which are courts of conciliation for labor disputes. The Civil Courts also have original jurisdiction of crimes. The commercial branch of the judicial system is regulated by the Commercial Code, and the commercial courts decide questions arising between merchants, with right of appeal to a higher tribunal. In criminal actions the Judges of the Peace and the Correctional Courts have jurisdiction, and there are Courts of Assise also, in which members of the press are tried. Above the Civil and Commercial Courts there are twenty-seven Courts of Appeal, and above all the other tribunals stands the Court of Cassation, consisting of a criminal branch, a civil branch, and the Chamber of Requests, the function of which is to deter mine whether or not appeals to this Court shall be allowed. There are 2863 Judges of the Peace in France, deciding as many as 325,000 suits annually. Their decisions are final in matters involving less than $60 in value, except that in certain personal disputes there is an appeal to the Council of Experts. Each of the Civil Courts consists of a pre siding judge and two associates. In Paris, where there are eleven such courts, the pre siding judge is paid $4000, the associates $1600. Illinois (Proposed Legislation). "A Legis lative Programme for Law Reform." By Nathan William MacChesney. 3 Illinois Law Review 512 (Mar.). This article reviews a number of bills which have received the official sanction of the leading bar associations in the state of Illi nois. These bills include one adopting the uniform sales act endorsed by the Commis sioners on Uniform State Laws, which the author speaks of as having been adopted in six states, a bill to remedy the rule recognized by the Supreme Court whereby the attesta tion by the husband or wife of a legatee renders a will invalid while the attestation of legatee himself merely avoids the legacy, and a remedy for several antiquated and incon venient rules of property developed under a bygone system surviving in this state which have long since been abandoned elsewhere, including (a) The construction of "dying without issue," (6) the rule in Shelley's case, and (c) destructibility of contingent re mainders. The foregoing three bills are favored by

169

the Illinois Commission on Uniform State Laws. Other bills are those endorsed by the Illi nois State Bar Association Committee on Law Reform, extending the present jury system in Cook County throughout the state; enacting the American Bar Association code oath of admission to the bar into statute law, and proposing some beneficial changes in the formal and administrative law of the state. The article also sketches some reforms which have received the support of the Chicago Bar Association, including a certiorari bill reliev ing the burden upon the Supreme Court,— "designed to embody in practical legisla tion the principle that courts of appellate jurisdiction—the Appellate Courts and the Supreme Courts themselves—should have the right to use their discretion as to what cases should go from the Appellate Courts to the Supreme Court for review. The judgment of the Appellate Court would be made final in all cases excepting where the Appellate Court allows an appeal upon a certificate of importance or the Supreme Court on a writ of certiorari issued, if at all, upon an ex parte petition by the party desiring the cause re viewed requires the record to stand for review. This is essentially the method adopted by the federal courts with reference to the appeals from the United States Circuit Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States, and it has there given great satisfac tion." This bill has been introduced in the Senate. As to matters which will be taken up by the Illinois legislature independently, the most important is a comprehensive bill defining the procedure of the courts of the state for the purpose of bringing about a speedy and satisfactory disposition of business in those courts. Mr. MacChesney considers this bill to need redrafting on the lines suggested by Prof. Pound, who criticised it for going into minute detail instead of dealing with the subjects broadly, leaving details to be settled by rules of court (3 Illinois Law Review 365). The author quotes with approval President Taft's remark, expressed in 18 Yale Law Journal 28, that the codes of procedure are generally much too elaborate, and the late James C. Carter's contention that the expe rience of Massachusetts and New York proved by contrast the advantage of retaining the old system of pleading and practice. International Law. See Newfoundland Fisheries. Labor Unions. See Legislative Procedure. Law Reform. See Illinois.