YALE
LAW JOURNAL
Vol. XXVII
NOVEMBER, 1917
No. 1
THE LAW AS AN EXPRESSION OF COMMUNITY
IDEALS AND THE LAWMAKING
FUNCTIONS OF COURTS
JOHN E. YOUNG
Supreme Court of New Hampshire
If we are to study law intelligently, we must not only understand what it is and its office in the social scheme, but also the forces which both immediately and mediately dominate its development. I shall assume for the purposes of this paper that each of the autonomic groups into which the human race is divided is an entity with a mind of its own which evolves ideals and makes laws to effectuate them, and creates the corporation known as the state to enforce its laws. In other words, I shall attempt to show that community ideals are emergent facts incident to the development of every community; that laws are the tools a community makes to effectuate its ideals, and the state, a corporation it creates to use these tools; or that laws and the state are the means a community employs to effectuate its ideals.
The term community has several meanings, but is sometimes used as synonymous with autonomic group; that is the sense in which I shall use it. The term state also has several meanings, but as I shall use it, it is synonymous with the governing entity of an autonomic group. In other words, as I use the term community, one of the autonomic groups into which the race is divided is intended; and as I use the term state, the governing entity of such a group is intended. By individual ideals, as I shall use that term, the opinions an individual forms as to what
