JUSTICE IN ENGLAND AND IN GERMANY.
Grundlinien durcligreifender Justizreform. Von Dr. Franz Adickes. (J. Guttentag, Berlin. 3s. )—Dr. Adickes, the able Oberbiirgermeister of Frankfurt-am-Main, has written this book in the hope of inducing his fellow-countrymen to study the English and Scotch systems of administering justice with a view to greatly altering their system. He believes that here we are on the whole contented with our system; that we hold that it gives us as near an approach to justice as human beings can expect to receive ; while in Germany dissatisfaction with judicial sentences, especially with those of the lower Courts, is so general that the higher Courts are overwhelmed with appeals. And the system which leaves Germans profoundly dissatisfied is far more costly than the system with which we are contented. This difference of results is attributed by Dr. Adickes mainly to two causes. Here every Judge has been a barrister, and by contact with solicitors and clients has learnt what law and life are to the mass of the people. In Germany every Judge begins by being an Assessor, an assistant in a Court, and, as a rule, soon forms the habit of looking at the world from the bureaucratic point of view. A second cause of difference is that here the high salaries paid to Judges and the eminenee of their position enable us to obtain for service on the Bench the ablest men in the country ; while in Germany the salaries are low and some other forms of public work are regarded by the public LLB more dignified than that of the Judges, and therefore it is not easy to obtain a sufficient supply of able men for the Judicial Bench. Partly owing, apparently, to the comparative weakness of many of the men who are appointed, far more Judges are employed in Germany than here. Cases which in this country would be dealt with by a single Stipendiary Magistrate or County Court Judge are tried in Germany by a considerable number of Judges. The difference between the number of Judges employed in the two countries is very remark- able. London, with 4,500,000 inhabitants, according to Dr. Adickes, has 49 Judges, 18 Chief Clerks, and 29 Registrars. Berlin, with a population of 1,888,948, has 204 Judges. Dr. Adickes calculates that the population of Germany, which now employs 8,819 Judges, would not, under a system like ours, need more than 530.
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