The civil law field cannot furnish a ready soil for planting such a democratic institution as the Bar Association. The civil law or Continental system is the foundation of the legal institutions of European nations and those which have ramified to other parts of the world. The Roman law, which is the origin of this continental system, is, historically speaking, now dead, having been arrested in its progress with its conversion into the Corpus Juris Civilis. Such a codification is always fatal to the growing life of jurisprudence.

The civil law ended not as jurisprudence, but as the source of rules and doctrines of royal prerogatives and privileges, and it has since remained stationary. It never enjoyed the happiness of experiencing what should have been its natural development. The consequences are lamentable. Under it there has not grown up that body of lawyers, which develops the integrity of the Bar and supports the independence of the Bench. They are not the guardians of law and justice. They are servile to the system itself, and tied down to rules prescribed to be applied in mechanical fashion.

The division between legislative and executive functions with them is scarcely defined. Politicians went on dreaming of Roman Imperialism, intoxicated with their desire for power, and organized the judicial system as a political machine. The people became subject slaves of arbitrary power protected by rules, and never did, and do not yet, enjoy justice. No nation so placed can advance in political principles, and there cannot be developed the democratic ideas, which should, if development were left undisturbed, be the ultimate goal of juristic progress. Under such conditions we could expect to see no just and equal laws; no scientific method of cultivating jurisprudence; no supremacy of law; no judicial precedent; no contentious procedure; no rules of pleading or of evidence; no principles of equity; no rational mode of legal thinking; no regular manner of deciding disputes; no controlling power of the constitution over legislation; no supreme authority of the judiciary over unconstitutional executive actions; no truth and justice; no ordered freedom and constitutional liberty where officialism and officialdom are the order of the day; because these grand principles or institutions are

either the causes or effects of democracy, they are synonymous with democracy itself, and democracy cannot exist without a strong Bar, as guide. No wonder therefore that no Bar Association such as yours has ever arisen in civil law countries.

Germany is the country where this Continental system has held absolute sway. There, the Corpus Juris Civilis has been followed as the source of her jurisprudence, and the late German imperialism was a system of despotism erected upon that foundation. The law is the great agency of civilization, and it wields with deadly silence its powerful influence for good or evil; it is the most effective force in the formation of national character, and moulds the course of its development, particularly in respect of social order, and psychologically too, as has been demonstrated by the Great War, where the failure of German strategy at the battle of the Marne was the initial decisive catastrophe. The false system followed in German law caused the fall of the German Empire; contempt for its obligations under international law. whose sole foundation is good faith among nations, was the fatal precursor of national destruction.

As to the power and resources of the common law, need I offer any observations to this great audience? It has evolved its own development by marking out the boundaries of practical jurisprudence; it has built up the most efficient system of judicial administration known for the maintenance of truth, justice and liberty. It inaugurated democracy, and is nurturing it and bringing it nearer to perfection with every day.

In view of these juristic developments, where should the work of the International Bar Association begin? Certainly in those regions most congenial to its growth. Such regions are North America, where the common law prevails. The system of the Bar Association is after all an antetype of the American Republican Government. It is a fine example of democratic organization. It is but natural that its flower should have blossomed forth from out of the soil of the common law. It is an AmericanEnglish law institution. But the idea of a bar association is not generally known except in America and Canada. The significance of such an institution would not appeal to practitioners in civil law countries, nor as yet even in England and those countries which have followed her system. This is the reason why

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the International Bar Association should first look to you, American lawyers, and seek to enlist your sympathy in its cause, and this in spite of England's being the cradle of the common law. Through you and with your co-operation, the membership should be extended to England and Ireland, later to the British commonwealths the foundation of whose jurisprudence is the common then to Scotland and South Africa where the common law and the Roman law are in process of fusion, and later, but not last, to India and the British Settlements along the Asiatic coast, where the common law and Indian or Eastern laws are in course of amalgamation. We should not forget European and South American countries, in which the Roman law is the foundation of jurisprudence, and nothing should be left undone to enlist their sympathy and co-operation.

The League of Nations, formed at the conclusion of the Great War, is far from being a perfect instrument. Its own existence is not yet firmly established, much less is it the potent instrument to guide the world in international affairs in the way of truth, justice and liberty, that we all hoped it would be. Many vital problems to be solved as the outcome of The Great War have not been probed, and the goal of ultimate peace, order, and happiness has not been reached.

Most of us are at present sound critics of the League of Nations. We like to think we know what is wrong, and how that wrong can be righted; but in all seriousness and humility, the real, practical way to adjust or minimize the failings and shortcomings of the League is to have them harmonized and adjusted as regulated by the common standard of international justice, such as could be formulated by the members of the Bar only, whose sense of fairness and deep experience and learning are peculiar to them, or should be, and, who are really the statesmen of the age, and have been tending to become so ever since lawyers framed the Constitution of the United States.

It is our opinion that the International Bar Association is an important, nay, an indispensable auxiliary of every political enterprise, of which the League of Nations is only an exampleis the instrument to bring nations together in better understanding, particularly the east and the west, whose modes of thought

are totally different, and to promote the cause of justice in the interest of the peace of the world, by extending the principles of democracy into the relations between the nations, regardless of race, language, religion or other limitations of life.

Today, the members of civilized societies are hardly yet conscious of the power and authority of the Bar in the making of modern civilization, but the time of this recognition must come, and the sooner the better, unless the world is to crumble into pieces, as is now threatened by the undemocratic ideas which appear to have captivated some sections of different nations.

What intelligent mind can doubt that it is the Bar alone which is really qualified to give real, impartial advice towards the construction and maintenance of the League of Nations, and that the integrity and independence of the Bar can assist in the dictation and administration of justice at the permanent International Court such as would be organized, were the League of Nations solidly instituted? The Bar of the world should resolve that its voice, its influence, its love of liberty, its conception of truth, and its sense of justice be made to serve in directing and settling the destiny of mankind. Justice standardized by the Bar can surely hold nations together in liberty and in peace.

As this should be so, why is it not for the lawyers of the world to combine under the guidance of our American and common law brethren, to organize themselves in the International Bar Association, so that this may be the universal organ to help maintain the peace of the world and to promote the cause of human progress?

Such, Mr. President, are the reasons that prompted me to address a letter to the members of your honourable Association at the 1919 annual meeting, pointing out that then had arrived a time most opportune for the American Bar Association to lead the way to organize the International Bar Association of the world with the object of establishing the standard of international justice. I reminded you then that the combined action and sympathetic co-operation of members of the Bar in the League of Nations was never more imperative. The two years which have passed since I last met you, have brought no change whatever in these circumstances, which produce, and go on producing, international disputes.

Is not the time now more than ripe for the nations of the world to move under the enlightened guidance of the Bar of the common law countries, to demonstrate to the world that there exists that high standard of international justice which can and will propagate its sound principles of democracy among nations in the attempt to secure the peace, progress, and happiness of mankind? We are most anxious that all the North American Bar Associations will now join the International Bar Association, and so encourage the Bars of all other nations having a jurisprudence based on the common law to do likewise. We could hope nothing better than that through your accession and leadership the International Bar Association should thus begin its great work. The Association so supported with your prestige will stimulate the members of the Bars of those countries whose jurisprudence is of Roman origin to follow in what I trust will be our common enterprise. The International Bar Association, thus expanded and strengthened, should acquire in time authority to dictate. the standard of international justice among all nations to be enforced by all the sanctions at the command of civilization, and this would prove to be the one essential bond of union and understanding between the Occident and the Orient.

The lawyers of the American Bar have rendered so much service to the cause of human progress, national and international. The amelioration of legislation, the elevation of the position of the judiciary, the advancement of peace and the development of international law, all these did great contributions to your credit, but, in my opinion, the work of establishing and defining the international standard of justice far surpasses in importance any of these achievements.

Until there shall be convened a general meeting under the joint auspices of both Occidental and Oriental Bar Associations, the International Bar Association cannot be said to have entered upon its real existence.

The inauguration meeting of the International Bar Association took place in Tokyo in April last year. The first regular meeting of the duly constituted International Bar Association will be held on October 24-26, next in Peking.

I shall be proud to welcome the day when the International Bar Association meets in Washington.