Willis: Anglo-American Law 
53 
rules, and the only effect would be to require the members 
of the legal profession to learn the changes or new rules. The 
rules are crude, primitive, and poorly adapted for the end 
which they have in view. In contrast with them are the 
modern English rules of legal procedure. The procedural field 
divides itself into the preparation of cases for trial, the trial 
itself, and proceedings for review. So far as the preparation 
of cases for trial is concerned in England today the summary 
judgment for collection of debts, the declarations of rights 
for the construction of deeds, wills, contracts, etc., and the 
discovery before a master on a summons for directions have 
resulted in the substitution of a judicial tribunal for the 
private legal tournament of attorneys, with their efforts for 
surprise and their maneuvering for advantage. As a con- 
sequence the subject of pleading is not exalted in England as 
it is here. In the actual trial of cases the substitution of a 
nonpartisan control by judges for the partisan control of trial 
attorneys is even more noticeable. The state impanels the 
jury, and the judge determines the issues, sums up the case 
before the jury, and requires special verdicts. Hence there 
is no bickering over rules of evidence. Appeals are conducted 
as rehearings, and the appellate court practically always 
renders final judgment. As a consequence new trials and re- 
versals for technicalities in procedure are practically unknown, 
and the rules of practice are very simple. The great char- 
acteristic of United States legal procedure is attorney control 
of the proceedings. The results are delay, uncertainty, ex- 
pense, technicality, and injustice. All of these results are ad- 
mitted both by the public in general and by the leaders of the 
legal profession . 17 In the United States we are not so much 
adjudicating cases as litigating legal procedure. Legal pro- 
cedure has become an end and is no longer a means. The great 
characteristic of English legal procedure is judicial control of 
legal proceedings. The result is that the English have de- 
veloped a legal procedure which makes the sanction of the 
state a real protection of legal capacities and law a real scheme 
of social control . 18 Perhaps it is not too much to hope that 
17 American Bar Association Report, Vo 1. X, p. 317ft, ; 12 III. L. Rev. 540. 
18 A recent brief but adequate account (“Appraisal”) of the modern English system 
of English legal procedure by Edson R. Sunderland is published in 11 Am. Bar Assn. 
Jour. 773, and 9 Jour. Am. Jud. Soc. 164. See also Chief Justice Taft’s report on 
the English system, 6 Jour. Am. Jud. Soc. 42-45, and 8 Am. Bar. Assn. Jour. 601 ; Dodge, 
“Employment of Masters”, 9 Jour . Am. Jud. Soc. 177; Higgins’ report on English 
