The Coconino sun., 1924-03-07
,TOO MANY LAWS FOR
HUMAN BRAINS TO ABSORB

"Fewer and better laws" might be
the slogan of Secretary of State
Hughes, taking the line of Will ii.
Hays and the movie SOlks.
In his address before members of
the American Law Institute, the sec
retary of state and former justice of
the United States supreme court de-
plored the fact that this country has
become "the greatest law factory" the
world ever has known. He declared
we are the victims of "prolixity, un-
certainty and confusion," with the
legislatures of 48 states grinding out
laws in great abundance at every ses-
sion. with the congress of the nation
adding to the federal statutes, and
with federal and state courts handing
down decisions which themselves make
laws through their Interpretation of
laws.
Although Secretary Hughes does
not contribute greatly to the sum of
knowledge on this subject, his address
has the merit of adding to what has
been said by others the weighty opin-
ion of present high official of the
government and former member of
the supreme court.
American Bar association has plac-
ed itself on record in protest against
the mass of laws that is sweeping the
country.
State bar associations have echoed
the thought throughout the nation. A
Texas candidate for governor says:
Things have got so that a man
can't run a peanut stand with safety
unless he has a lawyer to advise him. J"
And half the time the lawyer will be
at sea.
Courts are giving us 175,000 pages
of decisions a year. New laws enact
ed average 10000 year. There is an
average of $4,000 or more permanent
ly recorded decisions of highest
courts each year.
No lawyer, and of course no other
citizen, can keep informed of such a
mass of legislation Although each
of us is presumed to have a knowledge
of each and every law-particularly if
we violate one of them and get into
troubie-it is mental impossibility
to do so.
Large concerns having business in
several or many states engage the
steer them through the bewildering
maze of laws applying to their busi-
ness, and trust to luck not to get into
too much trouble. Or having got into
il, to get out with as little worry and
cost as possible.
One of the chief troubles, as Secre-
tary Hughes sees it, comes from the
badly written laws.
A legislature, seeking to harmoniZe
conflicting interests, will enact law
ambiguously phrased. Ultimately
there will be a trial under that law,
with somebody's person or property
at stake, and the courts will have to
render a decision interpreting the
law. To do so the court will have
to try to determine what the trainers
of the law intended it to mean. Often,
says Secretary Hughes, they didn't
themselves know what they meant.
Mr.. Hughes makes number of
suggestions by way of remedy. These
follow:
He would guard against the refuge
of Incompetence and arbitrary exer-
else of power" in the lower courts in
unexplained decisions.
He would halt the endless making
of laws and maintain respect for law
by rigid enforcement Gin the great
cities" Does Mr.. Hughes think the
laws are satisfactorily enforced in
smaller communities? He seems to
make an uncomphmentary implication
against the larger centers.
He suggests an improvement in the
administration of criminal law by GER
IL
its enforcement. Thirty years ago,
he remarks, it was claimed there were
$4,000 unconvicted murderers in the
United States, and he believes there
may be more rather than fewer now.
Secretary Hughes might well have
added, it seems, a suggestion that
each state legislature empower
its house and senate committees on
the judiciary to sit at each session
as a joint committee on code revision.
Let each state bar association have a
committee, necessarily carefully cho-
sen, to make recommendations to the
legislative commission on code revis-
ion, suggesting laws to be repealed
because they are bad laws, or are no
longer needed, or for whatever rea-
son.
On approval by the joint commits
sion, these recommendations would be
placed before the legislature for act
ion.
If we could erase lot of our laws
from the statute books, something
definite would have been achieved
FL Paso Herald.
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