Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 22.pdf/89

 Memorandum in re Corpus juris laws of the nation and of all the states (including statutory modiﬁcations of the

Common Law) can be completely ex hibiled, as the product of the best thought of the entire profession. If this plan has any one especial men't, it doubtless lies in the fact that it aims to organize in an

eﬂ'ecti've practical way the best brain power of the profession, without which no statement of the American Corpus juris could ever be as exact and thorough as it should.

77

President last year of the American Bar Association, examined our plan for the production of this work just before start

ing

for

Panama, and concerning it

writes: — “There can be no question as to the importance and desirability of such a work. Your plan as mapped out seems to me to be practicable and comprehensive."

Hon. Alton B. Parker says “It all seems workable.”"'r So also President Woodrow Wilson of

EXECUTIVE CONTROL. portance of

The im

a strong executive

con

Princeton,

long

a

deep

student

and

teacher of Jurisprudence as a science,

trol in the production of such a work was emphasized not only by Mr. Justice

writes that the enterprise “is both desir able and feasible,” and adds: “I wish that

Holmes and Judge Staake (quoted supra) but has also been particularly referred

there were some way in which I could

to by Francis Rawle, Esq., former presi

be of assistance to you." And Hon. Emlin McClain, Chief Justice

dent of the American Bar Association and the actual as well at titular editor of the recent editions of Bou'oier's Law Dictionary, the editing of which work

of the Supreme Court of Iowa, than whom no one in the west is in a better position to speak with authority, de clares:—

well qualiﬁes him to give an authorita tive opinion of particular value as to

"I believe you have a great plan, and one the successful prosecution of which would produce something monumental for the common law and give it that satisfactory form of state ment which it has lacked in its competition with the civil law as a. subject of methodical study."

whether centralized control is important in such a work as that contemplated. Mr. Rawle writes, declaring the pro posed work “would be of inestimable 'value to the profession and the commun ity,” and asserts :—

He also calls attention to the fact that

Lord Halsbury's English work is “totally “I thoroughly approve of that part of your plan which entrusts the ultimate headship to three, aided by a large advisory body."

Mr. Rawle inclines to the opinion that the advisory group should not be too

large.

On that point he says :—

"It certainly ought to be large. Perhaps ﬁfty would be enough. It would be difficult to ﬁnd one hundred men of equal, or anything like equal or average value, and the average ought to be high, both for good work and for the eﬁect it would have on the profession."

Hon. 1. M. Dickinson of Tennessee,

the present Secretary of War and the

inadequate” for American use. On this point, he says : "I suppose ‘The Laws of England’ which is being published under the supervision of Lord Halsbury is an attempt to do what you would like to do on a broader scale. That work is totally inadequate as a statement of the common law as administered in this country" (i. e., in the United States).

Of

our plan

for

the

work Chief

Justice McClain also asserts Z—— "It is a great project, and as it seems to me, feasible. . . . I would say that a logical l"See a further expression of Judge views, p. 92 infra.

Parker's