American Editorial Comment Upon the Corpus juris Project PREFATORY NOTE E devoted our issue of February, 1910, to a discussion of the proposal that
the best brain power of the profession be organized in a practical manner for the pre paration of a philosophic and scientifically co-ordinated statement of the principles governing the entire body of American law. The plan was unfolded in an article entitled "Memorandum in re Corpus juris," printed in the February number, pp. 59-89. An analysis of the memorandum appeared on p. 90, and expressions of opinion upon the project at pp. 91-113 from seventy or more of America's ablest men of the law, such as
Governor Hughes, Justices Day and Moody of the Supreme Court of the United States,
the late Justice Brewer, Judge Dillon, Judge Parker, Senator Root, Mr. Choate, General Hubbard, Mr. Stetson, Mr. Hornblower, .lr. Wheeler, Senator Manderson, Attorney
General
Wickersham,
Dickinson,
Secretary
Solicitor-General
of
Bowers,
War Am
bassador Bryce, Sir Frederick Pollock, United States Circuit Judges Gray, Grosscup and
Lanning, the late Dean Ames of Harvard, the Deans of the Columbia, Cornell and Yale law schools, Hon. John Sharp Williams, the Chief Justices of numerous State Appellate Courts, etc., etc. Our own editorial comment appeared in the same number at pp. 138-139; and passim, in the issues following, will be
found, under the title “American Corpus juris," in our Review of Periodicals depart ment, excerpts from the more important periodical comments. The views upon the project of President Taft and of the distinguished German jurist, Heinrich Brunner of Berlin, are quoted on
Review of Reviews:—
WANTED-AN AMERICAN JUSTINIAN The February issue of the law magazine, the Green Bag, is unique in devoting its contents entirely to one subject. This subject, of the highest importance to the members of the legal profession and (did
p. 430 of the July number. In that issue also, at pp. 420-423, is a further expression of the Green Bag‘: opinion upon the importance of the undertaking. But the judgment of keen minds outside the profession cannot but prove helpful. In the last analysis general public sentiment is expressive of the under lying forces which necessarily afiect the ultimate triumph of great projects and make or
mar
them.
Indeed,
there
can
be
no
successful administration of justice in any nation without the support of the people, which manifests itself in a healthy public opinion. Of the American Corpus juris project, there has been nation-wide editorial approval and keen appreciation of its importance. The editorial pages of leading journals un doubtedly reflect public sentiment, and public sentiment will necessarily have a potent influence in moving the man or men to act who have it in their power to establish the suggested Foundation of Jurisprudence a sine qua non of the success of'the movement. No single and isolated expression of opinion can be safely accepted as a guide to the senti ment of the public. This may, however, be gathered from a large volume of editorial comment, which in a very real sense serves as a true gauge of public thought. In such a movement as this, it is of importance to the profession to know the trend of public opinion. Accordingly in the pages following, We give to our readers a reprint of a number of edi torials in leading journals, representative of various and widely separated sections of the country. We comment thereon in the Editor's Bag, at p. 485 of thisissue.—- Editor.
they but know it) of equal, if not greater, importance to the public themselves, is a proposal to arrange and publish an American Corpus ]uris,-—that is, a complete statement of the entire body of American law on the lines of Justinian's Pandects. The need of such a work has been felt through more than a century of our history. James Wilson,
