“LAW HAS ATTAINED SUPREME POSITION”

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22463, 26 July 1938, Page 14

“LAW HAS ATTAINED SUPREME POSITION”

ADDRESS BY MR ALAN W.

BROWN

The law to-day had attained a supreme position, and was of the greatest help to the nation, ' *iid Mr Alan W. Brown, Assistant-Crown Prosecutor, in an address entitled “A Chat About the Law,” to the Christchurch Businessmen’s Club yesterday. The law had been described most aptly by George Bernard Shaw as an imperfect device to prevent men sending each other to the devil, he said. Nevertheless, its administration in British countries had helped to make the Empire what it was. No .matter what might be said about the jury* system, the collective brain of a jury could usually give as good a judgment as a judge in matters of fact. The trials by ordeal and battle .were reviewed by Mr Brown,, who said that these led up to the jury system, now regarded as the bulwark of British justice. The law had been fortunate in its judges, and it was notable that bad .. judges were rare exceptions in English- courts. The progress of the law was producing more complexities every day. Lawyers were surrounded by files of rules and regulations, and probably a citizen might break the law inadvertently every day. Mr Brown was. accorded a vote of thanks pn the motion of Mr R. A. Young. . -