CHAPTER XIV 
PERIOD OF SOCIALIZATION 
The Period of Socialization began in England about 1875, 
the date when the Judicature Acts went into operation, and it 
has not yet ended. In the United States, while many of 
the characteristics of the Period of Socialization have been 
manifesting themselves for the last fifty years, it is doubtful 
whether or not they have even yet become sufficiently para- 
mount to give character to the period. Yet no effort will be 
made to separate United States from English legal history 
for purposes of classification of historical development. 
Enough happened in England in 1875 so that it is accurate 
to say that the Period of Socialization in Anglo-American 
legal history began about that date. 
Characteristics. This period marks a revulsion against the 
Period of Maturity — with a concept of liberty whose only 
outcome would have been anarchy, as the Period of Maturity 
had marked a revulsion against the Period of Equity, and as 
the Period of Equity had marked a revulsion against the Strict 
Period. Thus we see how the legal pendulum has swung back 
and forth thru the centuries. After it had swung over to one 
extreme in the Strict Period, it swung to the opposite ex- 
treme in the Period of Equity. Then it swung back towards 
the Strict Period in the Period of Maturity. Following this 
it swung again toward the Period of Equity in the Period 
of Socialization. Consequently, the Strict Period and the 
Period of Maturity have points of similarity, and the Period 
of Equity and the Period of Socialization resemble each other. 
The end of the law in the Period of Socialization is the 
satisfaction of as many human wants as possible. It is tend- 
ing in the direction of making legal justice social justice. It 
is endeavoring to give fair play between groups as well as 
between individuals. The chief characteristic of the law in 
this period is the emphasis upon social interests. The natural 
result of the overemphasis of rights in the Period of Maturity 
was to raise the question of why people had rights. The ex- 
planation that they were natural and God-given was exploded 
by the discovery that the only natural rights which men had 
were the actual rights which Englishmen had obtained for 
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