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answers and directions you need for a sound foundation.
It's going to be your business whether you see him at
the start or not, but you are going to need him at some
stage and the more familiar he is with your overall plan
the more speedily he will be able to offer advice and
protection.
THE FUTURE AND LAW
The President of the Incorporated Law Society, Mr.
Brendan McGrath, delivered an address to Dublin
Rotary on "The Future of Law".
He said that people look at law differently. Some
see it as a code of prohibitions. Others regard it con-
structively as the foundation of a living order which
guides men towards a minimum acceptable conduct.
One of the basic misconceptions on the part of many
people is that law is primarily concerned with conflict—
with law in the courts. The traditional association of
law with crime is well illustrated by the story of the lady
who was being shown over the courts and when brought
into the Court of Chancery, which at the time was
adjudicating on some problem arising out of the distri-
bution of a charitable trust, she inquired of her guide :
"Where's the prisoner?"
Since law is a system for the solution of problems
thrown up by life, conflict and clashes of interest are, of
course, inevitable. Litigation is, however, only one
aspect of the law. It is concerned with the breakdown
of human relations.
There is, however, another and more important aspect
of the law, and that is, its function as an organ of
government for the creation and preservation of an
ordered society.
Looked at in this light, law will be seen as an instru-
ment of order by which society functions in a politically
organised community. It is the means by which society
works out its purpose. It is a product and forms part of
the fabric and culture of society. As such it is a social
science and has a social function.
Prior to the nineteenth century, law was mainly built
on custom and tradition. The sanction of antiquity
gave law its justification. The learned in the law were
those who knew and could declare what had always
been the law.
The industrial revolution, however, changed the
economic and social fabric of society. Individual liberty
was conceived to be the instrument of progress.
Bentham, the prophet of
laissez-faire,
urged that man
must be free to exploit the supposedly infinite resources
of nature on a competitive basis. The law's function was
to aid and abet by the removal of all obstacles to free-
dom of contract. This concept failed. The breakdown
was something more than a change in ideology.
The uncontrolled pursuit of economic gain changed
the physical conditions of urban life. The expansion and
intensification of industrial production brought about
changes not only in the economic structure but also in
the social conditions of life.
The mushroom appearance of densely populated
industrial cities gave rise to problems concerning public
health and safety. New industrial corporations and the
trade unions gave rise to the problem of the power of
one group of men to do damage to others. When men
pooled their individual liberties to create combinations
whose survival depended upon trials of strength, the
theory of freedom was called in question.
Finally, the necessity for elimination of waste, the
need for capital transcending individual resources and
the demand for minimum security for the individual led
to the entry of the state into economic enterprise trans-
forming law into an instrument of social control.
The emergence of the welfare state and the active
participation of the state in industrial enterprise are
particular exemplifications of this development.
The society which law now serves is undergoing still
further rapid transformation. We live in a planned and
regulated economy inspired by technological advance-
ment and urged on by the speed of communication and
transport.
The growing interdependence of people, the emer-
gence of new economic institutions and concern with
social experiment have expanded the dimensions of the
law. Problems concerning economics, science, technology,
international trade and transport and the establishment
of international economic and political institutions have
extended the area of law beyond the regulation and
control of day-to-day transactions.
Law has now entered into the sphere of "social-
engineering". The community is increasingly subject to
more and more law, but of a different order to times
past.
Legislation is rapidly replacing the Common Law.
Laws regulating employment, international and uniform
laws regulating trade and commerce are substituting for
individual contract. Law affecting our environment has
now become a matter of major concern—problems
relating to the quality of air and water, noise, urban
planning, radiation, deep sea mining, highways and
traffic control call for ever increasing attention.
The emphasis has switched from private to public
law. There is a continuous making and re-making of the
law. The problem now is how to keep the law in contact
with and amenable to the needs of a rapidly changing
tenchological society.
All this calls for increasing familiarity on the part of
lawyers with socio-economic factors underlying the law.
Law must be organically related to the knowledge of
the times. It must be informed by an awareness of facts
established by the disciplines of the economist, the
scientist, the physicist and the sociologist.
Lawyers must be able to see the interaction of these
several disciplines and be able to use the data of social
and economic life. To quote Lord Radcliffe (
The Law
and Its compass)
"You will not mistake my meaning or
suppose that I depreciate one of the great humane
studies if I say that we cannot learn law by learning
law. If it is to be anything more than just a technique it
is to be so much more than itself; a -part of history and
sociology, a part of ethics and a philosophy of life."
Equally, there would seem to be a need on the part
of the business community for a sharpened awareness of
what the law means, what it is for and how it does its
job. Businessmen should have some understanding of
law as a social institution.
There can be no effective liaison between law and
business unless the business community has some appre-
ciation of the processes of the development of the law,
the limits of its competence and the nature of the insti-
tutions through which it operates. This requires the
creation of a feeling on the part of the business com-
munity for the atmosphere of the law.
It goes without saying that every businessman must
have sufficient knowledge to do his job efficiently.
Whilst it would be impossible to make everyman his
own lawyer, each must at least have some knowledge
and understanding of the legal devices which he puts to
the demand for minimum security for the individual to
use from day to day. Accountants, chartered secretaries,
students of commerce and others who have attended
commercial law courses will, of course, have received,
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