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The Green Bag

ﬁtness of Messrs. Alexander, Kirchwey and Andrews to direct this work, Justice Brewer of the Supreme Court of the United States has expressed a very favor able opinion. What is proposed is to block out “the entire ﬁeld of the law under‘ a logical system of classiﬁcation, so that when the work is

published, the law on any particular point may readily be ascertained." In general charge would be a board of not more than seven editors. Of course, the work would be costly.

None

but high-priced men would be engaged upon it, because the services of no others would be worth while. . . . After discussing the different ways in which this great project might be ﬁnanced, Mr. Alexander says that "there is no plan whereby the ‘perils of com mercialism' can be avoided but by the work being brought out on a Foundation of Juris prudence established by some man of large means anxious and able to use part of his wealth in beneﬁting mankind; or by such a man advancing the necessary funds to proper trustees under an agreement to refund the same from the proceeds of sales." . . . A million-dollar foundation is suggested. With this, the production of the American Corpus juris would be assured. Among those who commend it are Justices Brewer, Day and Moody of the Supreme Court of the United

States,

former Chief

Justice Simeon E. Baldwin of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, John F Dillon, Elihu Root, Governor Hughes and Joseph H. Choate. Judge Baldwin, after speaking of questions incident to the proper execution of the work and saying that commercial con siderations should have no weight, adds: "It would, however, be impossible to exclude these unless the work were ﬁnanced by those who would ﬁnd their compensation in the satisfaction of having done good service to the country in helping to set its judicial institutions in order on a ﬁrm and common basis." Perhaps the million-dollar foundation of jurisprudence will be forthcoming. Assuming that the proposed work would be done in a workmanlike manner-—an assumption made safe by the character and standing at the bar of the men now most directly interested— it may be said that the money would be well spent.

Omaha Bee :— The proposed American Corpus juris, designed “as an expression of the law in the words of master minds, from which all searchers may draw inspiration," is the subject of an extended explanation and discussion in the‘ current issue of the Green Bag. The work is to be a compilation of legal principles drawn from American laws and court decisions, formulated by the best legal talent available. Endorsement of the project by the legal profession is well nigh unanimous, scores of letters of approval being printed in connection with the dis cussion. Among the endorsers are General Charles F. Manderson of Omaha, Judge Frank Irvine, formerly on the district and supreme bench of Nebraska, now dean of the law school of Cornell University, and Judge Roscoe Pound, formerly of the Nebraska Supreme Court, now professor of law in the Chicago University. General Manderson: Your proposition is to bring order out of chaos, for I cannot imagine anything more chaotic than the present condition of the law in this country. .. . judge Irvine: There cannot be the slightest doubt that such a work well carried out would be the greatest contribution ever made to our law. . . . judge Pound: I do not doubt that such a work as you propose, though diﬁicult of execution, because it would be a pioneer work in the system of our Anglo-American law, is entirely feasible. The utility of the work is beyond dispute, and, I might fairly

say, beyond measure. Our jurisprudence of rules is breaking down obviously, and in the process is injuring seriously public respect for law. Boston Herald:—

A CORPUS JURIS The next great opportunity for a multi millionaire donor to serve his countrymen, according to a legal writer of eminence writing in the Green Bag for February, is to duplicate in a way the work that Mr. Carnegie is doing for science, by creating a fund and naming suitable trustees to administer it, with which an American Corpus jurt's can be brought together. This task involves the attempt to make a complete and comprehensive statement, in a logically developed and systematized form, of the entire body of