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Home > Journals > Michigan Law Review > MLR > Volume 24 > Issue 2 (1925)

 

Abstract

On paper the program of the London meeting of the American Bar Association last year was not a crowded one. No busy morning sessions hurried the members away from their hotels; at noon there was a leisurely opportunity for comfortable luncheons; and the drowsy summer afternoon was far advanced before the real business of the day began. But the printed program only marked the high points of the meeting. All through the week, by day and by night, there was London to be seen, the Abbey, the Tower, the Thames, palaces, parks and galleries, and the thousand historic spots which are perhaps more interesting" to the American than to the native Englishman. But chiefly there was the legal quarter of London, guarded from encroaching commerce by centuries of vigilance, and occupied by the halls, libraries, and chambers of the Inns of Court, inclosing those quiet gardens, velvet lawns and shady walks, through which the roar of the traffic along Holborn and the Strand only faintly echoed. In the midst of the medieval seclusion of these ancient citadels of the English bar, stood the massive pile of the Royal Courts of Justice, under whose Gothic entrance arch passed hundreds of American lawyers in a constant stream which flowed through the great central court and along the vaulted corridors and into every court-room where the king's judges sat in their wigs and robes administering the laws of England. These courts, and the Old Bailey not far away, cast their enchantment over every visitor, luring him back day after day, in a restless search for the secret of their success. How did they operate so quickly, quietly, and effectively? There was no evidence of hurry, of driving pressure, of anxiety to make every moment count. On the contrary, cases often seemed to pr0ceed with a rather slow dignity. And yet it was clear that the English court reached its verdicts and judgment far more directly, more simply and more rapidly than all American court. Why should it be so? A week was too short to supply the answer.

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