Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 24.pdf/162

 New York State Bar Association both that the law can be applied in ac cordance with its real spirit and intent. But the judge is still always confined within the narrow limits of reasonable interpretation. It is not his function or within his power to enlarge or improve or change the law. His duty is to main tain it, to enforce it, whether it be good or bad, wise or foolish, accordant with sound or unsound economic policy. It is very important to have reformers and advocates of all good causes and thought ful and public-spirited citizens who are keenly alive to the defects in our system of laws and solicitous to find means to cure them. But the courts are excluded by virtue of the special duty imposed upon them from playing any of these parts. Their duty is to maintain and en force the law as it is at the moment, to interpret it in sincerity and truth under the sanction of their oaths and in the spirit of justice, to accept loyally every change made in it by the law-making power, but to stand firmly against any attempt to ignore it or nullify it, except by the legitimate action of the popular sovereign in its making of constitutions or the legislative branch of the govern ment in its making of statutes in con formity to the constitution."

139

the recall is because English and Cana dian taxpayers get justice instead of procedure for their money. He pro posed that the Code of Civil Procedure and existing rules of court be abolished and replaced by a short set of rules substantially similar to the proposed equity rules of the federal courts. Messrs. Battle and Proskauer recom mended that the present distinction between special and trial terms of court be abolished; that each j udge be assigned to a numbered part of the court, and that from the time of the assignment of a case to a judge it should remain with that judge for all purposes, includ ing trial, unless transferred by special order or after appeal. Other papers on procedure were "Judgment," by Neal Dow Becker of New York; "Appeals," by Everett P. Wheeler of New York; and "The Practice in Surrogate's Court," by John P. Cohalan and Robert Ludlow Fowler of New York. Each state bar associa tion in the United States had also been asked to request one of its members to furnish a paper showing the practice it its respective state, whether common law or statue law, its merits and de merits.

PAPERS ON PROCEDURE

SECRETARY KNOX'S PAPER

A paper entitled "How Civil Procedure Was Simplified in Connecticut" gave the views of Gov. Simeon E. Baldwin of that state. The first two papers treating of the topic assigned for discussion were pre sented by C. Andrade, Jr., of New York City, who considered "Commencement of Action," and George Gordon Battle and Joseph M. Proskauer of New York, who dealt with "Preparation for Trial and Trial Practice." Mr. Andrade declared that the reason England and Canada are not demanding

In the evening Hon. Philander C. Knox, Secretary of State, delivered the annual address. His speech dealt with "The Monroe Doctrine and Some Inci dental Obligations in the Zone of the Caribbean." The history of the incep tion and growth of the doctrine was traced, and in the end a strong argument was made for the ratification of the conventions between the United States and Honduras and Nicaragua, now pend ing before the Senate. The next morning, Henry A. Forster of the New York bar, and J. Newton