The Central Law Journal.
- Hon. JOHN F. DILLON, Editor.
- S. D. THOMPSON, Ass'te Editor.
- ST. LOUIS, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 1874.
- SUBSCRIPTION:
- $8 PER ANNUM, in Advance.
We present to the legal profession and the public, the first number of the Central Law Journal. We have not undertaken this enterprise without due consideration of the nature of the task before us, nor without making extensive enquiry, by correspondence and otherwise, to ascertain the needs and expectations of the profession in regard to such a publication. We have chosen to make it a weekly in preference to a monthly or quarterly, not because this form promises more profit in proportion to the labor and money expended upon it, but because a paper published weekly, will afford, as we conceive, the highest degree of usefulness.
It concerns the bench and bar to know, at the earliest possible period, the rulings which are being made in courts of eminent character and of last resort. This information we shall endeavor, as far as practicable, to supply. Opinions which possess a general interest or peculiar local value, will be published in full, with carefully prepared head-notes, and such other annotations as may seem appropriate. Other decisions will be presented in the shape of editorial notes of greater or less length, according to the supposed importance of the questions adjudicated. This plan, while it involves more labor, seems to us preferable to the "digest" plan adopted by most of the legal publications. It gives us more freedom of expression, enables us to add where it seems necessary, our own notes and comments, and brings us more nearly into a sort of conversational connection with our readers.
Most of the matter used in these notes, coming from courts in the Mississippi Valley, will be furnished by our own special correspondents and reporters. For such as comes from courts at a greater distance, we shall be indebted, principally, to our legal and other exchanges.
In view of the growing importance of the Federal Courts, it will be a special feature of the Journal to advise its readers at the earliest practicable date, of the important questions therein adjudicated. It will give, from week to week, a summary of the proceedings had in the Supreme Court of the United States during its sessions; and special pains will be taken to keep its readers fully advised of the important questions decided in that court. It will also contain early advice of the important matters transpiring in the English courts.
In a department of "Notes and Queries" we shall answer, as well as we can, any questions of general interest propounded to us by correspondents.
Some space will also be devoted to news items of interest to lawyers; embracing such matters as the death of eminent judges and lawyers; changes in the constitution of important courts; the doings of Congress, of constitutional conventions, and of the state legislatures, so far as they involve important legal matters; and any like items of news that may be supposed to be of interest to the profession.
We shall examamine, with what care our time will permit, and notice editorially, any important law book sent to us for that purpose. While we cannot hope to devote to any book more than a hasty examination, we shall endeavor in these notices to be candid and impartial; to avoid extravagant praise on the one hand, and unjust censure on the other. The department of "Book Notices" will not be kept open as an advertising medium; it will be under the exclusive control of the editors; the publishers will have nothing to do with it.
Judges and counsel, who furnish us with early copies of important decisions, will place us under special obligations to them. We shall be under like obligations to reporters who may favor us with advance sheets of their reports.
Correspondence on topics of current legal interest, is solicited. It will be scarcely necessary to advise correspondents to be brief. In a busy profession, like that of the law, few persons can afford the time or find the patience to peruse long articles; nor can a weekly journal, dealing with a great variety of topics, afford the space to print them.
Hoping to be able to improve upon each number of the Journal, until it approximates somewhat to our conception of what such a legal serial should be, we commit this first number to the criticism of the legal profession, and, we trust, to their support.
The Bankrupt Act—Shall it be Repealed?
In a commercial, manufacturing and trading country, a bankrupt system so framed as to be adapted to the circumstances of the people, is beneficial alike to the debtor and the creditor. Such a system is particularly desirable in a country of vast extent. Divided, as the United States is, into forty states, each of which, in the absence of a bankrupt enactment, makes the laws which regulate the relation and rights of debtors and creditors within its limits—if credit is to be extended and commercial intercourse freely maintained between the people of the different states and sections, a bankrupt system, wisely conceived, becomes almost a necessity.
Without a bankrupt law, each state has its separate collection and attachment laws, under which the creditor who first moves, secures a preference over the rest; and the local or the favorite creditor fares well at the expense of all the others. A bankrupt law, also, affords the only means by which debtors who have failed in business, can be relieved from the load of hopeless insolvency.
We doubt whether the present bankrupt law is worse than the system which it superseded. Doubtless, it has many faults
