JURISPRUDENCE: ITS DEVELOPMENT DURING THE PAST 



CENTURY 



BY JOSEPH HENRY BEALE, JR. 



[Joseph Henry Beale, Jr., Bussey Professor of Law, Harvard University, b. 

 Dorchester, Mass., 1861. A.B. Harvard, 1882 ; A.M. ibid. 1887; LL.B. ibid. 

 1887; LL.D. University of Wisconsin, and University of Chicago. Professor 

 of Law, Harvard University, University of Chicago, and Dean of the Law 

 School. Author of several legal treatises and books of cases for the use of 

 students of law.] 



I. Introduction 



THE term " jurisprudence " has been used with so many meanings 

 and each meaning is so vague, that it is necessary at the outset 

 of any discussion of it to limit in some way the meaning intended 

 to be put upon it. By jurisprudence, as used in the programme of 

 this Congress, I understand to be meant the whole body of law 

 of the European and American nations, regarded as a philosophical 

 system or systems; in short, the science of justice, as practiced 

 in civilized nations. My own topic, therefore, is to describe the 

 changes in the law or in the understanding of law in the civilized 

 world during the past century. 



So broad a subject cannot, of course, be treated exhaustively 

 nor can any part of it be examined in detail. My effort will be 

 merely to suggest, in case of a few branches of law where the changes 

 seem to be typical, the course and reason of the changes. 



II. General Description of the Amount of Change 



If we compare the condition of the law at the beginning of the 

 century with its present condition, we shall gain some idea of the 

 amount of change in the law itself and its administration. In 

 England conservatism and privilege and the dread inspired in the 

 heart of the people by the excesses of the French Revolution con- 

 spired to retain in the law the medieval subtleties and crudities, 

 though the reason of them had been forgotten and the true applica- 

 tion of them often mistaken. The criminal law was administered 

 with ferocity tempered by ignorance; all the anomalies and mistakes 

 which have disfigured its logical perfection are traceable to the 

 period just before the beginning of the last century. Criminal 

 procedure was still crude and cruel. The accused could neither 

 testify nor be assisted by counsel; death was the legal, a small 

 fine or at most transportation the actual, punishment for most seri- 



