IS6 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



Assembly of 1913 empowering the court to prescribe rules of practice 

 and procedure in all courts of record and to change and rescind the 

 same.' This act was the subject of an interesting paper at the last 

 meeting of the Colorado Bar Association, by Mr. Thomas H. Hood, en- 

 titled ' 'Unshackling the Courts";^ and the rules themselves, adopted 

 by the Supreme Court on the 19th of June last, have been printed and 

 went into effect the second Monday in September. Mr. Hood thought 

 that a precedent for the act substantially was found in the English 

 Judicature Act of 1873. This is no doubt true; but the English in 

 these matters have passed from precedent to precedent. 



A short reference to some of these may not be out of place. It 

 has been aptly said that in the old days the maxim of the common- 

 law courts seemed to be "No writ, no remedy"; but in extenuation 

 it may be added that in the age of Glanvill if the clerks in chancery 

 had no writ to suit the case they got busy and made one; made them, 

 that is, until restrained by the Provisions of Oxford in 1258 in the 

 turbulent reign of Henry IH, which commanded the chancellor to 

 issue no more writs, except writs "of course," without direction of the 

 King and his council. This in turn a few years later (1285) occasioned 

 the Statute of Westminster II, which provided that — 



Whensoever from henceforth it shall fortune that in one Case a Writ is found, 

 and in like Case falling under like Law, and requiring like Remedy, is found none 

 the Clerks of the Chancery shall agree in making the Writs. 



Or, if the plaintiff and the clerks cannot agree, the matter shall be 

 referred to the next parUament, when — 



by Consent of Men learned in the Law, a Writ shall be made, lest it might happen 

 after that the Court should long time faU to minister Justice to Complainants.^ 



Says a late learned work, speaking of the period prior to the Provi- 

 sions of Oxford : "A new form of action might easily be created. A 

 few words said by the Chancellor to his clerks — 'Such writs as this 

 are to be issued for the future as of course ' — would be as effectual as 

 the most solemn legislation. As yet there would be no jealousy 

 between the justices and the chancellor, nor would they be easily 

 induced to quash his writs.""" 



■ Sess. Laws, igtj p. 447. ' 13 Edw. I ch. 24; Imp. Ens. Stat. p. 16. 



" Rep. Colo. Bar Assn. igi} p. 283. 'Pol. &• Matt. p. 149. 



