American Law Institute
At the 1920 and 1921 meetings of the Association of American Law Schools, proposals which Lewis encouraged urged the creation of an "institute of law" to elucidate the progress of the common law. In 1923, the American Law Institute became a reality. Lewis, as its first director, shaped its agenda of preparing "restatements" of the law, serving until 1947, a year before his death.
Though the ALI’s restatements met with complaints that they undermined the fluidity of the common law and echoed the codification of European civil law, it is fair to say Lewis’s work as director rank him as the single most influential figure in the pragmatic development of 20th-century American law.
Read more about this topic: William Draper Lewis
Famous quotes containing the words american, law and/or institute:
“Lincoln becomes the American solar myth, the chief butt of American credulity and sentimentality.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“I had often stood on the banks of the Concord, watching the lapse of the current, an emblem of all progress, following the same law with the system, with time, and all that is made ... and at last I resolved to launch myself on its bosom and float whither it would bear me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)