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THE GREEN BAG
art in drafting the statute, the blame rests principally upon the lawyers. The quality of the statutes in each state is not a bad index to the average quality of the bar in that state. To draw a statute modifying the common law in such language as to effect exactly the result intended is one of the most difficult achievements of legal skill. Modern and ancient instances of signal failures of such statutes can easily be cited. If the graduates of law schools are thoroughly instructed in the rules of statutory construction and in the relation of the common law to statute law, their usefulness and capacity for leadership in the legislatures will be increased. In addition to the influence which law schools may exert through their graduates, there is another way in which they can aid the courts and affect powerfully the develop ment of the law. Prof. Dicey says, "The development of English law has depended, more than many students perceive, on the writings of the authors who have produced the best books." He refers as examples to Stephenon the Principles, of Pleading and Story on the Conflict of Laws. Story's book appeared in 1834, .and Prof. Dicey says of it that though the work of an Ameri can lawyer, it "forthwith systematized, one might almost say created, a whole branch of the law of England.1 The teaching of law, ever since Blackstone delivered his lectures as Vinerian professor, has been a fruitful source of legal text-books. Kent's Commentaries on American Law are the result of his lectures as professor of law in Columbia College. Reeves' Domestic Rela tions and Gould on Pleading owe their origin to the famous law school at Litchfield, Con necticut. Swift's Digest, another famous law-book, is due to the author's teaching of law.2 In 1832 Judge Story, in connection with his work as Dane Professor of Law in the Harvard Law School, began his pheno-
menal career as a writer with the publica tion of his treatise on Bailments. His example has been followed by manyteachers both living and dead who have given valuable books to the profession. It may be said that the law schools are the natural source from which one would expect the best text-books. Teachers of law have the best facilities for doing the required work. By going over the same ground year after year, aided by the suggestions of successive classes of students, they can acquire a knowledge, both analytical and historical, of their respective subjects which other writers, working under less favorable cir cumstances, can rarely equal. In this respect the law schools of the United States have already shown a resemblance to the universities of Europe, where valuable treatises have always come from the pro fessors of law. Professor Windscheid says that the first impulse to the preparation of his treatise on the Pandektenrecht, which had a great influence in Germany, was given by the needs of his lectures.1 Any thing which tends to extend the influence of text-books tends indirectly to increase the power and influence of law schools. There are two facts which render it probable that text-books will in the future acquire a wider use and have greater authority in the common law than they have had hitherto. One of these facts is the remarkable increase of case-law, or precedents. As long ago as 1856 Sir Henry Maine said that the accumulation of caselaw conveyed a menace to English juris prudence.2 Full of enthusiasm for the Roman law, he then saw a great destiny in the United States for the Civil Code of Louisiana. Apparently he expected to see the spread of the Roman or civil law in the new western states. After half a century only three or four states have adopted codes of their substantive law, and the Roman or
1 Law and Opinion, 363. J 2 Great American Lawyers, 140, 142, 481, 484-5.
1 Windscheid, Lchrbuch. Preface (7th ed.), p. v. 2 Cambridge Essays (1856) i, 10.
