LAW REFORM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12239, 7 April 1903, Page 4

LAW REFORM.

The proposal to establish a' great law school in London for the systematic teaching in all branches of law administration in the Empire cannot fail, if realised,- to induce much necessary law reform, having for its object the assimilation of Imperial law. It is extraordinarily anomalous that such a state as. that formed by the United Kingdom and its colonies should contain within its limits laws not only inconsistent with one another, but in many cases quite incoherent when taken together. A couple may be legally married in New Zealand, yet their children may be illegitimate in England. . A British shipowner may find himself confronted on a British colonial coast with regulations which frustrate his, in England, perfectly lawful intentions. Commercial law varies amazingly between one British country and another. Our very naturalisation laws are singularly different. Irreparable confusion has generally been avoided by the very natural tendencies of our kindred peoples to copy and imitate one another's enactments, but the accumulation of statutory differences is a very serious evil and one which cannot be too soon combated. The simplest and easiest way to remedy the difficulty is, of course, to get the question thoroughly understood. This necessary understanding the law school proposed would speedily bring about. Under its benign influence and moral suasion New Zealand might even secure a Libel Law more in keeping with that of the United Kingdom and its other colonies than our present most indefensible statute. While shippers, merchants, travellers, emigrants and conjugally inclined couples may hope to obtain redress from a legal confusion which in a number of cases inflicts intolerable injury.