SECTION B HISTORY OF COMMON LAW 



(Hall 11, September 21, 10 a. m.) 



CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR JOHN D. LAWSON, University of Missouri. 



SPEAKERS: HONORABLE SIMEON E. BALDWIN, Judge of the Supreme Court of 



Errors, New Haven, Conn. 



PROFESSOR JOHN H. WIGMORE, Northwestern University. 

 SECRETARY: PROFESSOR C. H. HUBERICH, University of Texas. 



THE HISTORY OF THE COMMON LAW 



BY SIMEON EBEN BALDWIN 



[Simeon Eben Baldwin, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Errors of Con- 

 necticut; Professor of Constitutional and Private International Law, Yale 

 University, b. New Haven, Connecticut, February 5, 1840. A.B. Yale, 1861; 

 A.M. ibid. 1864; student at Yale and Harvard Law Schools; LL.D. Harvard, 

 1891; member of various state commissions; President American Bar Associa- 

 tion, 1890; President of Association of American Law Schools, 1902; member of 

 National Institute of Arts and Letters, American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science; President of International Law Association of London, 1899- 

 1901; corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, The 

 Colonial Society of Massachusetts, American Historical Association, American 

 Political Science Association ; President of the Connecticut Society of the Archae- 

 ological Institute of America, 1902. Author of Modern Political Institutions ; 

 American Railroad Law; Digest of Common Law Reports ; The American Judi- 

 ciary. Co-author of Two Centuries' Growth of American Law; and other noted 

 works and papers on law.] 



IN mapping out the field of science for the purposes of this Con- 

 gress, it has been thought that it could best be presented for our 

 consideration in seven great divisions. There is that of Rule, which 

 deals with universals; that of History, which records the story of 

 mankind in recent time; that of Physics, which looks to our material 

 environment; that of the Mind, which makes little of environment; 

 that of Utility, which makes the most of it; that of Social Regulation, 

 which applies law to society; and that of Culture, which creates 

 character. 



Nominative science can tell us of the philosophy of law. Physical 

 science can show how law succeeded savagery, and to what extent 

 it has been moulded by climatic and geographical conditions. Mental 

 science discloses the subject of law and is our guide in methods of 

 judicial procedure. Utilitarian and regulative science apply it to 

 its proper objects in a proper way. Cultural science rests upon it and 

 presupposes it. 



In considering the history of law, it has been deemed convenient 

 to confine the discussions of this department of the Congress to the 

 consideration of the two kinds of law which have had the greatest 



