Laws

The government is also the supreme law-making body of society, although rules of conduct are set forth by many other social agencies. New inventions like the radio, the airplane and the automobile call for laws as do new social conditions, such as child labor in factories, chain stores or trusts. Laws in general lag. No doubt unwise laws are passed, but in cases where the laws which have been passed are admittedly wise, the delay and effort to bring them to passage have been great, as in the case of child labor legislation. After legislation has been passed it must be interpreted in the light of the Constitution and given judicial review where the social philosophies of judges become a factor in determining legality. On the one hand is the problem of safeguarding the body of the law; on the other is the problem of bringing laws up to date with changing social conditions. The conflict is fundamental. By very definition a rule must be definite and reasonably fixed, otherwise it offers no satisfactory guidance. Yet these rules should be changed sufficiently often to meet the new situations in a changing society. Laws tend to appeal to the authority of the past but in a period of great change that authority many not offer any specific guidance.

The problem of advancement of the judicial administration remains pressing. The necessary flexibility in our legal system in order to supply the needs of a changing society is dependent on personnel and the training and philosophies of that personnel. The lower forms of collusion between the courts and crime, the intermediate types of job brokerage in judgeships and the more refined manifestations of judicial remissness are a challenge to our constructive statesmanship and at times an occasion of profound despair. Selection of enlightened and liberal judges is one effective approach. The awakening sense of responsibility on the part of the bar, the organizations of judicial councils and the broader social philosophy of the courts are indications of change. Modern legal education and socio-legal research are a leavening influence working toward the greatly desired adoptability.

Some of the problems of jurisprudence mentioned above are being worked out by the extension of another social invention, the administrative tribunal, which often combines administrative, legislative and judicial functions in one body. Thus a health board adopts rules, renders decisions and carries out orders. Administrative tribunals have had a remarkable development within the 20th century and are an adaptation to the changing conditions. Their success argues for their further development, but they offer a solution for only a phase of the lag of the law.

The immediate problem may be stated broadly as that at adapting an antiquated judicial system to rapidly changing urban industrial conditions, to new concepts and practice in the world of business and labor. A wide range of questions in the field of judicial organization, procedure and public relations must be covered along with the development of scientific methods and the adoption of a broader social spirit.

It may be anticipated that the vigorous protests of leaders of the bar will be needed in the next period of our growth, and that the spirit and procedure of the judicial branch of our political system will undergo changes of a substantial and helpful nature. In this the quickened spirit of responsibility on the part of the bar and of the judges is likely to play an important role, while the scientific spirit now beginning to assert itself in centers of legal training and research will be widely influential.

Source: Recent Social Trends in the United States, an examination of the social state of the United States at the end of the 1920s undertaken at the direction of President Herbert Hoover.