84
The Green Bag
right and the plates from which the work
tions," as they have been aptly termed,
was printed-most valuable assets.
and there would in consequence be no real necessity for the practisinglawyer
On this point it is well to recall the words heretofore quoted, of Hon. Francis Lynde Stetson, concerning the proposed
to keep track of them.
statement of the American Corpus juris:
the administration of Justice more exact and enable the average citizen to secure cheaper and more speedy Justice.
2.
“Upon completion, an authoritative and comprehensive work of such value to the public and the profession, in my judgment, would command a prompt and abundant return, sufiicient to reimburse the most ample founda tion."
Other Uses for the Foundation? Furthermore, the proposed Founda
tion for the Advancement of jurispru dence would always be available, not only to aid the production of future edi tions, but other great works so sorely
needed, notably a series of reports which would be a counterpart of the great work under consideration, reprinting in a con
nected series all “Ruling Cases, English and American.” The latter would prob ably be the very next step to follow the production of the work on the American system of law, perhaps be simultaneous
with it, the cases to be selected in very much the same way and perhaps by the same staffs by which the Institutional
Treatise is to be edited.
Such a series
of reports kept up to date in connection
with the statement of the American Corpus juris, outlined herein, ought to go a long way toward solving the serious problem confronting the administration of Justice and remove the weight under
which the profession is staggering-I refer to the never ending mass or reports which the practising lawyer should con sult in order properly to prepare his cases. Our system of law would then be reduced to a science, and departures from declared principles would become
The publication of this work will make
As the situation now stands, it is impracticable for the average litigant
always to get Justice in the average case, for the lawyer he employs often can not properly investigate all the law,
that is the multifarious and conflicting authorities, and prepare his briefs with out an expenditure of labor and of
time out of all proportion to the real value of the services to the client. Often an astute lawyer, either by reason of his ability, his ingenuity or his good fortune, locates or stumbles across a
line of authorities which, while not correct in principle, are sufliciently weighty to impress the trial Judge,
and the lawyer on the other side is either not sufficiently learned or suffi ciently industrious to get the correct decisions on the other side which con flict with and which, if used in argu ment, would overcome those presented by his opponent. This results in more mistakes and errors in Trial Courts than should occur, and often, indeed very
generally, it is impossible, for financial reasons, for the loser to take an appeal.
As a matter of fact it is well known in the profession that but a small per centage of cases are appealed. This distressing situation referred to
they would be mere “judicial aberra
above has been developing rapidly as in an arithmetical progression; but it has only become startlingly manifest during the last twenty years. The growth of population, with corresponding in crease of litigation and consequent unavoidable accumulation of judicial de
,—‘See also p. 86 infra.
cisions, is the fundamental factor.
more and more infrequent-and finally of no importance at all as authorities;
It
