Book Review: Minimum Standards of Judicial Administration

Abstract

This is a valuable book upon a specific but important area of legal activity. It will be of no interest to those lofty souls of our profession who look down upon the plebeian subject of court procedure. It will be anathema to those vigorous iconoclasts who regard "procedural reformers" as in league with the devil in trying to preserve and make workable an outworn system. But to a large group of active workers it will be a vade mecum of professional activity throughout the nation directed toward the improvement of court structure and court administration. This group is indeed an ever increasing body; hardly a bar association now fails to be somewhat permeated by the spirit which first found definite recognition in the federal rules of procedure and now is embodied in the movement for the integrated courts. And it is handy to have at hand the definite story illustrated by maps conveniently picturing the states from dark to speckled to white on the basis of the extent to which they have accepted the various recognized steps in procedural reform. Even the most chauvinistic state legislator can hardly fail to be somewhat impressed to observe the blackness of his own state thus contrasted with the snow-white condition of near neighbors.