422
The Green Bag
"If an American wishes to know the laws of his country he must turn to several hundred volumes of Statutes, several thousand volumes of reports of adjudicated cases and almost as many more volumes of text-books, com menting upon and expounding the statutes and the cases . . . but the rule by which he is to be governed in any transaction is somewhere in that confused mass of legal lore, and it is so plain and so simple that it is his own fault if he does not find it or does not understand when he has found it." (See 22 Green Bag 66.)
What is needed is to extract the unity which underlies the conflict of
doctrine, and to supplement it with a symmetrical outline of standard rules
conveniently accessible and likely to win their way gradually into the favor of judges. If that object cannot be realized, it would seem as if that could be only on account of the difficulty
of finding draftsmen equal to the task, and the question of the scarcity of the
fidence? . . . I know no particular reason against a satisfactory solution, but obviously it is a question to be solved in the United States and not elsewhere." (See 22 Green Bag 96.)
It is by no means certain that the
majority of Americans competent to judge
would
share
Dean Wigmore’s
opinion regarding the shortcomings of legal scholarship in this country.
Hon.
John G. Milburn evidently sees no draw back of this nature :— "I have never entertained a doubt as to the necessity and vast influence for good in many directions of such a statement, but the difficulties and obstacles in the way of it always seemed to me to be insuperable. But the study of your Memorandum has convinced me that it is perfectly feasible with the aid of an adequate foundation." (See 22 Green Bag 92.)
Professor Watrous thinks the difficulty
of finding the right sort of draftsmen by no means insuperab1e:—
requisite legal talent is the next point
to be considered. The third objection, that there are
not in this country scholars enough equal to the demands of the enterprise, deserves serious attention. If American legal scholarship leaves much to be desired we may as well candidly admit the fact, but the wisest thing to do under those circumstances would per haps be to set before our jurists a goal
of scientific achievement toward which they could struggle.
One should not,
however, allow oneself to be persuaded
that the country is deficient in scholar ship without strong proofs of the alle
gation. The point has already received some notice. Sir Frederick Pollock intimates that it is a question for the American lawyer to decide for himself, for he has said :— "Having settled the outlines of your body of law, can you get them filled in by men whose standing in the profession is such that their exposition will command general con
"The difficulties in the way of achievement are tremendous, but I am sure they can be overcome by the triumvirate, in so far as in the nature of things they can be overcome." (See 22 Green Bag 105.)
And former Chief Justice Baldwin is also hopeful that ability of the kind required can be obtained : “I am in entire sympathy with those who believe that a. full and well arranged state ment of the rules of common law and equity, as they are or should be generally recognized in the United States, can be prepared by competent men and put in the compass of a few volumes." (See 22 Green Bag 101.)
The natural first impression of many, moved only by the din of great reputa tions. might be that we had very few legal scholars of first rank and marked analytical acumen in the United States, but scarcely a month passes that does not witness two or three noteworthy
contributions to the higher forms of legal science, and a second impression,
based on fuller information, must be
