Opinions upon the Corpus juris Project These considerations point to some such plan as that which you propose as the only one promising any degree of success. The under taking must not be a commercial one. It must be carried out by a large number of those men best fitted for such a task‘ Because it requires the co-operation of so many men, it requires a strong central organisation and competent direction by a few. My conclusions therefore are that such a work is more to be desired than anything else in the way of legal development, that the task is enormous but not impossible of per formance, and that your.general plan is one promising success. There may some time be room for controversy as to details, but the time to consider details is not yet at hand. Professor Henry Wade Rogers, Dean of the Yale Law School, and Chairman of the Committee on Legal Education of the American Bar Association:— I fully concur in the opinion expressed in the letters you have already received that this work you propose is one of the highest im portance to the profession and to the public. There certainly can be no difierence of opinion on that point among those who are qualified by their learning and experience to pass judgment upon the question. It would be difficult to exaggerate the benefits which would follow from the satisfactory completion of the undertaking. It would be equally dilficult to overesti mate the magnitude and difficulty of the task you propose. It will involve great labor and must command the services of the ablest minds in the profession. . .
It is certainly possible that some wealthy, sagacions, far-seeing and public spirited indi vidual or individuals will establish a Founda tion which will make it possible to enter upon this splendid undertaking in the immediate future. The expense would be great because of the magnitude of the work and the necessity of employing the highest talent. And cer tainly the whole profession would applaud should any citizen or citizens of the Repub lic open the way by providing the necessary funds. I 1 =5.“ Hon. George D. Watrous, President of the Connecticut State Bar Association and Pro fessor of Law at Yale: As to the desirability of such a work as you plan, there can be but one opinion. The diffi— culties in the way of achievement are tremen
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dous, but I am sure they can be overcome by the triumvirate, in so far as in the nature of things they can be overcome. Hon. Roscoe Pound, former Supreme Court of
Nebraska
judicial
Commissioner,
and
Commissioner for Nebraska on Uniform State Laws; now Professor of Law in the University of Chicago Law School; Chairman in 1907 of the Section of Logal Education of the American Bar Association:—— I do not doubt that such a work as you propose, though diflicultvof 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 seri ously public respect for law. A great deal of our law in books is not law in action, not only because the mass of legal detail is too cumbrous for actual administration, but often because, at the crisis of decision, judges can not but feel that they ought not to apply the mechanical details they find in the books in the hard and fast way that rules, as distinct from principles, are to be applied. But where are they to find the principles? There are suggestions here and there, and a powerful judge now and then draws a principle from the mass of rules. In general, however, the courts are too often forced to reach a con clusion on the large equities of the cause and forage in the books for cases to support it. This makes our written opinions a mere ritual. Sooner or later a system of our law must come. Such a work must be done for its own sake. It must come from [a] the gradual, but ex tremely slow progress of academic research and publication, from [b] a state-appointed commission or [c] from some private founda tion. Commercial enterprise will demand im mediate profits ——and this work must be done thoroughly for ultimate not immediate results. The work of the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, for example, will not sell; but
who shall estimate its value? It has been said that the crimes of a Bona parte and the bigotry of a Justinian will be forgotten because at their bidding the rough places in the way of justice were made smooth. The patron under whose auspices the way of American justice shall be made smooth will have done no less and will be the greater, in that he devoted his own while they com manded the resources of states.
