REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON UNIFORM STATE LAWS. To the American Bar Association: Your Committee on Uniform State Laws has to report that during the last year Commissions on Uniformity of Legislation have been appointed in the States of Iowa, Virginia and South Carolina. Twenty-two States have now appointed Commissions. But few of the State Legislatures held sessions last winter. It is more than probable that at least ten additional States will create Commissions during the coming year with proper effort on the part of the Bar. It is evidently essential to the success of the movement towards Uniformity of Legislation that all the States should, so far as it is possible, be represented in the Conventions of Commissioners. To bring about that result we recommend the continued co-operation of the American Bar Association, and the continuance of the present Special Committee. It is important that there should be no limitation of time in the tenure of the Commissions. No Commission should be appointed without provision for its necessary expenses. Although few legislative sessions were held during the past year, several recommendations of the convention of Commissioners have been adopted, notably, the abolition of days of grace on commercial paper by the State of New York. All of which is respectfully submitted, L. D. BREWSTER, August 23, 1894. Chairman. REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON FEDERAL CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE. Your Committee respectfully report that, owing to the pressure of other matters pending before the session of Congress, they have not yet been able to arrange for and to secure a hearing before the two Judiciary Committees. Your Committee were advised that it was not a favorable time to present the matter and that it would be wise to postpone the presentation of it. If the Committee shall be continued, they will endeavor to bring the matter to a conclusion by the next meeting of the Association. August 24th, 1894. JOHN F. DILLON, CHAS. CLAFLIN ALLEN, PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECTION OF LEGAL EDUCATION. August 22, 1894. The Section of Legal Education convened at 3 o'clock P. M. Henry Wade Rogers, of Illinois, Chairman of the Section, called the meeting to order. The Chairman: The hour has arrived for convening the Section of Legal Education. There are some items of business which should be disposed of before we proceed to the regular order. The action taken by the American Bar Association in organizing this Section contains this provision: "The Section shall be organized by the appointment of a President and a Secretary of the Section at its first meeting, and thereafter annually." I suggest, therefore, the appointment of a Committee to recommend to the Section officers for the next year. Austin Abbott, of New York : I nominate for members of that committee James H. Colby, of New Hampshire; John H. Wigmore, of Illinois, and John D. Lawson, of Missouri. The motion was adopted. Austin Abbott, of New York: It Sub-section 5 of the by-laws of the Association, under which this Section is organized, is a little informal in its phraseology and perhaps may lead to embarrassment on that account. reads, if I recollect right, that the Section shall be organized by the appointment of a "president" and a secretary at its first meeting, and thereafter annually. I would, therefore, move that we recommend to the American Bar Association that sub-section 5 of by-law 14 be amended to read that this Section shall be organized by the election annually of a "chairman" and secretary, etc., as the word chairman would seem more proper to use. Henry Hitchcock, of Missouri : I second the motion. The motion was adopted. President Henry Wade Rogers, the President of the Section, then read his annual address. (See the paper at the end of these Minutes.) The Chairman : I now have the honor, as well as the pleasure, of introducing to the members of the Section, John F. Dillon, of New York, who will read a paper on "The True Professional Ideal.” John F. Dillon then read his paper. (See the paper at the end of these Minutes.) The Chairman: The next paper on the programme is by Professor John D. Lawson, of the University of Missouri, on "The Standards of Legal Education in the West." It affords me great pleasure to introduce to the Section Prof. Lawson. John D. Lawson then read his paper. (See the paper at the end of these Minutes.) The Chairman : I would like to say, in answer to the suggestion made by the last speaker, that the Committee on Legal Education, in the report which was submitted to the American Bar Association three years, ago I think, made a suggestion along the line of that offered by Prof. Lawson, that the power to admit to the Bar should be taken away from inferior courts and lodged in the court of last resort. That recommendation was adopted by the American Bar Association. I would also state, by way of justification for some of the law schools, that the statement which is found in some of the catalogues to the effect that members of the bar will be admitted to the senior class does not mean in all the law schools of the country that a person so admitted is to be excused from passing the examination in the junior year. I have personal knowledge that in two or three of the law schools, that of the Michigan University among others, the statement in the catalogue is to the effect that a person who has been admitted to the bar will be admitted to the senior class, but persons so admitted are not graduated from the law schools until they pass all of the examinations required for graduation. It may be that there are some law schools which do not pursue that plan, but I simply say that by way of justification for some of the law schools which do require that examination. These papers are now open to general discussion. W. W. Howe, of Louisiana: I was very much impressed with the very eloquent remarks made by Judge Dillon upon the subject of the necessity of some broad culture for lawyers. It is very much the habit of some of us who practice law in New Orleans whenever we get a chance to say something on behalf of the civil law to do so, and when Judge Dillon so eloquently urged the necessity of a broader culture of comparative jurisprudence it struck me that there could not be any better method adopted in the law schools of this country, outside of Louisiana, than the establishment of classes for the study of the civil law in which there should be a study of comparative jurisprudence. I do not want to detain you by any discourse upon that subject, but if I had time I think I could surprise some of our friends here by showing the wonderful analogies there are between the civil law and the common law in many points. For instance, it is well known that the writ of habeas corpus is fully described and was practiced under the writ in the Pandects of Justinian. also a fact that when you come to take up almost any leading doctrine of law in America and trace it back you will find that somewhere it has been passed upon, either in the law of Rome, the law of Spain, the law of France or the law of Belgium. I remember noticing a very curious example of that not long It |