Sep 10, 2023
During the course of the long nineteenth century, a great debate took place between those who wanted to base the law of the United States in common law, and those who wanted it based in codified law. The proponents of the movement had three goals, which can be characterized as procedural, jurisdictional, and aspirational. The movement achieved considerable success with the first two and was at least partially successful with the third. The procedural goal was to replace the elaborate, arcane, and madding system of special pleading with simple and uniform codified court procedures. The jurisdictional goal was an effort to merge the courts of equity with the courts of law, and the aspirational goal was the wholesale replacement of the common law with a comprehensive codified or civil law legal system.