A New Federal Civil Procedure – I. The Background

Abstract

On June 19, 1934, the signature of the President of the United States made effective the act conferring upon the United States Supreme Court the power to make rules of procedure for federal civil actions at law and to unite the federal law and equity procedure. The power thus granted to the Court affords an unusual opportunity for introducing effective measures of reform in law administration into our most extended court system and of developing a procedure which may properly be a model to all the states. How this opportunity is met may furnish a real test of the ability of our profession, bench and bar, to meet the needs of an increasingly complex social organization for efficient and workable court machinery. Students of the law and of the social sciences may well watch the outcome with acute interest. In this and a later article we attempt a consideration of the historical background of the reform and what seems to us its teachings as to the direction and the form the proposed change should take.