Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the North Carolina Bar Association (Volume 2)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...Codes of those States where the Civ1l law forms the basis of the jurisprudence, is hardly practicable at this time. It is by no means uncertain that this will not be undertaken at some time with success. It would seem that the extent to which we may codify at this time is to be measured by successful efforts in this direction in the past. The Committee is of the opinion that the Association should recommend that the next General Assembly provide for the appointment of three Commissioners, eminent lawyers, who having the taste and talent for the work, shall undertake the task. The Assembly should mark out the lines upon which they shall work. They should carefully examine the present status of the statute law of the State and in connection therewith carefully study the decisions of the Court appertaining thereto. They should collect and revise the statutes under appropriate chapters and sections, which should be arranged in logical order. Where the language of the statute is obscure or where by judicial construction the reading of the same will not convey to the mind the true meaning thereof, the Commission should be empowered to so revise that the true ends and purposes of the statute will be obtained. In tj1ose cases where, by construction of the Court, the sections or statutes work a hardship the Commission should have the power to modify and revise so as to meet the true intent of the Iyegislature. The Commissioners should also, so far as possible, adhere to the arrangement of the Code of 1883. All sections which bear one upon the other should be referred to in the marginal notes and all cases of the Supreme Court should be annotated in the Code at the correct section. Of course the Commission will be required to report to the next session of...