The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-01-21
THE RESCUE OF THE LAW

A very important movement has begun in New York, having as it's object restate- ment of the laws, to afford as much relief as possible from existing uncertainty and complexity in the minds of lawyers and lay men as to what is the law.
 There are multitudinous statements as to the law and what the law is, and there would seem to be no need of one more; but the statement that is proposed will, if made, be stamped with authority. It will be some thing in the nature of roundup of law such as the Emperor Justinian authorized to be made when Roman pandects and judgments became so many and so complex that no man then living had command of them all.
 Possibly the idea is not of a code of laws in the modern understanding of a code; and possibly, too, a code of that sort would be inpracticable for use even if it proved prac- ticable to write. What the lawyers who are concerned seem to have in mind is a restate- ment or definitionlof law and in such pre- sentation as will command attention and bring about reform. The general opinion is that the law is complex, contradictory, and at times vague, that many of it's pre- cepts do not work we'll in practice, and that its administration results frequently in in- justice rather than justice. This opinion IS not confined to those radicals who preach the overthrow of existing institutions. It is held by the ordinary man, the professedy 1good citizen" This fact is recognized as constituting mandate for something to be done about the situation of the law.
 With congress in session virtually from years beginning to years ending, and with forty-eight legislatures devoting an average of two months per annum to turning out new laws. and amending or repeating old ones, and with as many supreme tribunals, in addition to the national court, giving final interpretation and judgment-and, fur ther, with the laws delays and the idiosyn- cracies of juries, the citizen may we'll be in an uncertain state of mind and in need of help. And that is not the sole eonsidera- tion for the citizen loses his respect for law: his moral fibre is weakened. He be- gins to question the value of the existing institutions. He becomes the material from which the bad citizen is made. In a coun- try where the public liberty and safety have law for their basis, this effect must be pro- nounced very bad indeed.
 It is proposed by MT. Elihu Root and some thirty noted lawyers to organize an American Law Institute, whose opinion will have more authority than is now accorded any legal work. At preliminary meeting held in New York City recently, the call was authorized for an organizing meeting to be held in Washington, February 23. h. vitatons are to be extended to the chief justice of United States Supreme Court, the senior federal judge of each circuit court of appeals, the attorney general and solicitor general of the United States, the chief jus tice of each states highest court, the presi- dent and members of the executive commit tee of the American Bar Association and of each state bar association, the deans of law schools belonging to the Association of Amefican Law Schools, the presidents of the principal legal societies in the country, the commissioners on Uniform State Laws and one hundred others selected for legal learning. This meeting will be asked to con stitute itself the first members of an Amer ican Law Institute, and to elect twenty-one members as the first councillors or direc- tors.
 This will be the beginning of what may result in the most far-reachng reform ever carried through in this country. The pro- gram is flexible; it may be extended as far as good judgment dictates; and there is pos sibility that the course of the investigation may lead to conclusions and recommends tions much beyond and above the initial proposition. The task is to rescue the law from situation where it may justly be
 $ A. the work will not end until the law is placed upon a pedestal, permanently, and with ali mems approval?