The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-01
CoDIFICATION.
Necessity of Complete Legal Re-
form.

Necessity of Complete Legal Re-
form.
Codifcation on scale such as was con-
summated under the direction of the En-
peror JuStinian as we'll as Napoleon, has
never been undertaken in America. The
expediency of codifying the pre-existing
body of our laws is hardly questionable,
although it's pracucability may present
some obstacles. One sitting in the midst
of a vast library of legal lore, consisting
of reports, digests commentaries statute
law, etc, occupied in tracing down of
some legal proposition, becomes sensitive
ly appreciative of the desirability of codi-
fication. The conflicting and confused
mass of precedents through which the
legal practitioners must find his way in
hunting down points of law, is frequently
fourd to be extremely perpleXing, where
time is an important element in a contro-
yersy. Not only is a vast amount of time
&C nsumed in these campaigns Of eXplOra
ton. but what is more disheartening, the
law sought is not always found, and when
found is frequently discovered to be in
proposition existing in some other. juris-
dictions Under such incompatibilities the
Judge in the trial of a case. must either
adopt one of the two authorities, or estab-
fish a precedent by disregarding both.
Thus the great tendency of our system of
Jurisprudence is TO constantly multiply
precedent promising to assume with in
creasing population and the growth and
development of commerce. a domain of in
finite proportions In the United States
today there are no less than five thousand
Voluv1H of reports both national and
state. including American reprints of
English reports. In connection with this
there are between three and four hundred
volumes of digeStS, statutes, etc. in ad
di'ian to several hundred volumes of text
books 1t must be remembered that we
are comparatively in the infancy of our
career that this vast accumulation Of
legal lore is only the product of but a
little more than a hundred years of our
existence. Basing an estimate of our fu-
ture progress and development upon the
experience of the past the books we will
leave as a legacy to poSterity in the latter
half of the twentieth century, if our legal
system continues unchanged, viii reach
the astonishing figure OF forty of fifty
thousand volumes. Under such circum-
stances the most consummate genius in
possession of all the embellishments
2enitor, will be unable 10 find specific
law and after laborious and frlitless re-
search over a trackless sea of legal pre-
cedent VIII sink back in his chair, with
an uncomplimentary conviction of the
misguided and INSTRUCTED ingenuity OF
the past.
tending from the early theocracv of the
fabulous kings through The republic and
later theocracy of the Chrinstian emper-
orS and popes, covering a period of over
a thousand years, was in a state of al
most hopeless and ineXtricable confusion
at the. time of Justinian. The utility and
practicable advantages of codificatiop at
this juncture, especially presented itself.
Such a thing as justice under the admin
istrajon of the law as it then existed
of eminent jurists were received with
equal credit as authoritative expositions
of the law. Roman society. however ire
spective of the rnunificence of any system
of law, had sank into such a deplcr lble
and demoraliZing state that the admins
tration of justice and the equality of hu-
man rights was practically out of the
question. Il had come TO such a pass that
a suit could not be instituted without the
deposit Of bride. The judiciary had be-
come grossly corrupted and the state OF
affairs was not at all ameliorated by the
Unfortunate condition of the law
The civil law Of Rome at this time con-
sisted of two departments. beilig desig-
Novum, or new law. All the statutes
such as had not been discarded or had
become obsolete, passed under the repub-
lie and early kings. the e1lactments of the
senate passed during the latter part of
the republic and beginning of the empire
and the writings of recognized jurists of
missioned by the emperors constituted the
Jus VetuS. The Jus Novum consisted ex-
clusively of the ordinances or constttu-
tons of the emperorS, a body Of law that
was promulgated during the middle and
latter part of the reigns of the Christian
emperors. Much confusion and uncer-
t1llIy eAlSltu III lIlS DIdnCn OF the law.
the constitutions being of almost bound,
less variety. no complete collection ever
having been accomplished. Aside from
this many constitutions had been ahro
gated by legislative action, without refer
ring expressly to the specific ordinance
implicated So then in the trial of a case
an attorney relying on one constitution
was frequently met by his opponent with
equaAly authoritative law. 1t became
clearly. necessary under this state of af-
fairs that Some scheme be inaugurateG to
bring harmony out of chaos. To introduce
a system of dissection in which the de-
formed and distorted subject might be
examined in its complicated ranifica-
tons, tracing the infection to its legiti
mate source. and thereby applying a
remedy Schemes for reforming the law
had been. proposed before Justinian, but
were Intellectual
Immediately upon his accession A. ID.
528, Justinian commenced his campaign of
legislative reform. A commission of ter
lawyers were appointed to revise the i'm
perial constitutions, cutting out all that