10.11.2012 Views

Download - Abyssinia Law

Download - Abyssinia Law

Download - Abyssinia Law

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

IOWA LAW REVIEW<br />

qualifications and who are selected by prescribed methods3 The place<br />

of the lawyer in the administration of justice and the organization of<br />

the legal profession have also been determined. 4 Again, changes will<br />

be peripheral.<br />

In a developing legal system this simply is not so. A planned development<br />

of the legal system must take place precisely because<br />

there is not a well-defined body of law and established legal institutions,<br />

or at least not such as are adequate and suitable for the modern<br />

society that is being created. Existing law is frequently uncertain and<br />

not uniformly applied; nor is it capable of providing the solution for<br />

the new kinds of legal problems that will be faced. The institutions<br />

administering the law have not taken on a definite form. Indeed, the<br />

place of law and legal institutions in the society itself may not be<br />

clear or understood. At the time that the development of the legal<br />

system is undertaken, the fundamental questions of what the law will<br />

be and what institutions will administer it remain to be determined.<br />

It is the fact that such questions are unanswered that marks the<br />

difference between a developed and a developing legal system.<br />

Moreover, the development of the legal system will not be an<br />

evolutionary one, responding to societal needs as they appear at a<br />

given time. It will be a planned and structured development, an<br />

obviously different kind of development than that which has taken<br />

place in legal systems that presently would be considered developed.<br />

The Anglo-American system, as we know it-the content of its law<br />

and the nature of its legal institutions, has been the product of gradual<br />

and evolutionary growth. Dean Pound has traced this growth from<br />

the stage of primitive law to strict law, to equity, and finally to the<br />

stage of maturity 5 ['Vol 53<br />

www.abyssinialaw.com<br />

Its development has paralleled the development<br />

of the nation as a whole. As new societal institutions are created, new<br />

needs appear, and the law develops in response to those needs. Since<br />

the essence of the feudal system in England was the ownership and<br />

possession of land, a law of property came into being before other<br />

branches of private law,' and that law was shaped by the requirements<br />

3 Thus, in the United States and England judges are selected from the ranks<br />

of the bar, while in France and many other continental countries, where there<br />

is a career judiciary, a person must have special training to become a judge. For<br />

a discussion of the French approach see IL DAVID & H. DE VAIas, supra note 2, at<br />

18-20.<br />

4 In the United States there is only one type of lawyer while in England there<br />

is a divided profession, i.e., lawyers are either barristers or solicitors. See generally<br />

Lund, The Legal Profession in England and Wales, 35 J. Am. Jun. Soc'y<br />

134 (1952). In France the profession is even more divided. See generally M.<br />

Auos & F. WALTON, INTRODUCTION TO FRencH LAw 22-23 (2d ed. 1963).<br />

5R. POUND, JumSPRuDENcE 367-456 (1959).<br />

a See H. PornE_, AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO ENGLSH LAW AND ITS INSTITr-

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!