Wilhs: Anglo-American Law 
123 
court assumed further control over the jury in the matter of 
the measure of damages in tort actions. 
In the United States the work of reform of legal procedure 
is found in what is called the Field Code of 1848, which has 
been generally adopted by the states of the Union. Since that 
time practically nothing in the way of reform has been 
done in the United States. Criminal procedure is still that 
of days of the Stuarts. The disqualifications of witnesses have 
been largely abolished, but a preliminary examination of 
jurors for bias is tolerated, and the position of state judges 
in trials is not much more than that of bailiffs. Courts in 
the United States have the power to declare statutes void. 
The above reforms, while considerable, were not thoro- 
going. In the United States, for example, it is questionable 
if the legal procedure is any better under the codes than 
it was under common law procedure. However, there were 
rumblings which portended the storm of legal reform which 
was to break in England in 1873, and which will probably 
break in the United States within a few years from the time 
this is written. 
