Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



157 



2. The work should ho of a continuing character consisting 

 of: (a) The lieepiug of the code compilation to date through 

 the preparation and issue of supplements and, from time to 

 time, now editions of the code; and (b) the preparation of con- 

 solidation bills relating to specific titles of the code or more 

 special topics having for their purpose to restate the law in 

 accordance with the principles above laid down, such bills to be 

 reported one by one accompanied by reports pointing out the 

 nature of the changes effected in making the restatement. 



3. The committee having the work in charge should be pro- 

 vided with a permanent, highly paid, expert staff to perform 

 the work under the general direction of the committee. 



4. In performing their duties this staff should seek the co- 

 operation of the committees of Congress and the administra- 

 tive agencies of the Government the work of which has to do 

 with the subject matter of the several bills ; and the bills, as 

 first drafted, should be submitted to such agencies for their 

 comments and suggestions which comments and suggestions 

 should be included in the reports accompanying the bills. 



5. As conditions and the subject matters of legislation un- 

 dergo change in character of relative importance, it will be 

 found desirable to effect modifications in the scheme of classi- 

 fication now employed in the code. 



It is a matter of interest that, according to the com- 

 pilers of Scott and Beaman's Index Analysis of the 

 Federal Statutes, the preparation of a scientifically de- 

 vised index constitutes the first step in undertaking 

 such a work of revision and restatement of the federal 

 law. In the preface of their volume they thus state : 



It is the belief of the authors that for the first time in the 

 history of our legislation there exists a reasonably reliable 

 ground work for preparing a scientific and complete revision 

 of our laws. The preparation of a detailed and scientific index 

 being considered as a fundamental prerequisite to an accurate, 

 comprehensive and inexpensive revision of the statutes, the 

 British Parliament in 1869 placed the preparation of such an in- 

 dex iu the hands of Mr. Thring, afterwards Lord Thring, and 

 Mr. Ilbert, subsequently knighted as Sir Courtney Ilbert. The 

 British revised statutes are considered models of form and 

 exactness, and the experience of both English and European 

 legislatures shows conclusively that no satisfactory revision, 

 codification, or consolidation of the Statutes at Large can be 

 prepared without first making in scientific fashion a most de- 

 tailed index to the subject matter found in the mass of existing 

 enactments ; besides. Lord Thring, Sir Courtney Ilbert and 

 other experienced lawyers in statute law work state that this 

 method is by far the least expensive. 



The problem of statutory revision and restatement 

 in the States is, in all essential respects, similar to that 

 of the Federal Government. It has been pointed out in 

 our consideration of legislative reference services that 

 certain of these services are entrusted with the duty 

 of acting as revisors of statutes. According to the 

 Hook of the States *^ existing provisions for the effecting 

 of statutory revision are as follows: 



Five legislative reference bureaus undertake statutory re- 

 vision functions in addition to library services, legislative re- 

 search and drafting. They are the California Legislative 

 Counsel Bureau, Colorado Legislative Reference OflSce, Kansas 



« Volume I, second edition, 1935, p. 199. 



Reviser of Statutes, Pennsylvania Legislative Reference Bureau, 

 and the Virginia Division of Statutory Research and Drafting. 

 Some States — Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, and 

 Rhode Island — have separate statutory revision agencies 

 which sometimes do bill drafting. Four States have code com- 

 missioners. Vermont and Rhode Island have law revision 

 commissioners and Maine and Wisconsin have revisors of 

 statutes. 



Of these several agencies, the Wisconsin re visor of 

 statutes is outstanding for the comprehensiveness and 

 technical excellence of its work. As described by Mr. 

 Witte in his article A Law Making Laboratory to 

 which reference has been made in our accoimt of legis- 

 lative reference services: 



In Wisconsin every bill, iinless it is a private law or a merely 

 temporary measure, is drawn as a repeal, or amendment of, 

 or an addition to the existing statutes by section and number. 

 There are no blanket or implied repeals, and every new enact- 

 ment is given a number which fits into the statute. The simple 

 decimal system of numbering statutes is used as it is capable 

 of indefinite expansion. In every bill which amends any 

 section of the statutes, the old matter is printed with a line 

 stricken through it and the new matter is printed in italics. 

 No one, on reading a Wisconsin bill can possibly be confused as 

 to the manner in which it affects the existing statute. * * • 



These bills (correction bills), prepared by the revisor and 

 introduced at the end of the session, reconcile all conflicts in 

 the new laws. Another important service of the revisor con- 

 sists of the preparation of "revision bills" between sessions. 

 These represent piecemeal revision of the statutes. They con- 

 solidate, reconcile, and clarify all sections relating to the 

 particular subject dealt with and they repeal any dead material. 



Wisconsin, it will thus be seen, has in operation a 

 system for both the current codification and revision 

 of her statutory law, and one, moreover, which makes 

 it possible for the current work of legislation to be 

 performed with the maximum of information regard- 

 ing the change that proposed legislation will have 

 upon existing law. 



Legislative Councils 



The State legislatures, as has been indicated, labor 

 under a number of handicaps in performing their 

 functions. One of the most serious of these, which 

 has not yet been mentioned, is that they, with few 

 exceptions, meet only every other year and that their 

 sessions are, by constitutional limitations, restricted 

 to a short period of time, the most usual limitation 

 being 60 days. This period is an exceedingly short 

 one in which to reach a decision regarding legislative 

 policies, translate these policies into properly drafted 

 bills, and perform the necessary operations involved in 

 having these measures considered in committee and 

 on the floor of the House and in securing an adjustment 

 of differences arising between the two chambers. This 

 situation would be greatly improved if arrangements 

 could be made by which all legislative measures of 



