THE RELATION OF LAW AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION Chancellor M. A. Brannon of Montana.

The acceptance of an invitation to present a discussion before a group of specialists imposes a serious obligation. The obligation requires the selection and discussion of some subjects suitable for the thoughtful review of the specialists who have honored one with the invitation to participate in their annual conference. Conscious of this obligation "The Relationship of Law and Social Evolution" was selected for presentation to the members of the North Dakota Bar association. It is a subject which bears close relationship to biological studies pursued for many years. It was suggested also by reading a stimulating article relative to "Socializing Legal Education" which was published recently in the New Republic.

Students of living matter use the term "law" in a different sense from that employed in human legislation. In biology "law" is a term applied to the orderly procedure which is observed in nature, and frequently expresses results rather than processes. In other words, in science "law" is a statement of ascertained facts as they are observed in a succession of phenomena. In jurisprudence "law," of course, is a prescribed course of action made and enforced by constituted authority which society has brought into existence for the control of human beings. An interesting illustration of "law," in the biological sense, was stated clearly and succinctly by that great leader in science, Von Baer. The studies leading to the recognition of the truths expressed in the law are intimately associated with Von Baer and the law has been christened with his name. Von Baer's law has been tested unnumbered thousands of times and found true with practically no exception. It incorporates salient truths of organic evolution and reads as follows: "The order of development in living matter has been from the simple to the complex, from the general to the specific and from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous." This far-reaching law of Von Baer's comes repeatedly to one's mind as he reads the illuminating article, "Socializing Legal Education." This discussion on legal education urges "the application of the scientific methods to the understanding and the control of social behavior." While Von Baer's law is suggested by the discussion "Socializing Legal Education," it should be observed that the time factor lying back of the resultants referred to in Von Baer's law is vastly greater than the time factor associated with the evolution of human society. It may very well be that the ratio of the time factor in Von Baer's law and the time factor

in evolution of human society is one thousand or two thousand to one. Moreover, we should remind ourselves that the resultants referred to in the law of Von Baer are natural resultants, whereas those indicated in most of the social rules and social laws are artificial and not natural.

If the biological law of Von Baer is a natural law and the laws of society are largely artificial it is evident that any comparison between the resultants pictured in Von Baer's law and any resultants indicated in social evolution would be analogy. Nevertheless it is interesting to note that the analogy runs parallel in nature and in human nature. In truth there seems to be something more than analogy between the truth incorporated in Von Baer's law and the truths observed in social evolution. It is possible to use identical statements found in the law of Von Baer if we substituted "human society" for the term "living matter." The statement then reads, "Human society has evolved from the simple to the complex, from the general to the specific and from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous." The evidences which support and prove this modified law of Von Baer's as it is applied to social evolution, is found in all human institutions such as the tribe, the family, the state, the church, the school, the industries and every expression of organized human relation.

The most important property of a living plant and of a living animal is that principle or property called life. This property of life is the most important of all principles or properties of matter because it makes possible the repair incident to the work essential for the continuance of living matter, and it makes possible the phenomenon of growth in the early life of the individual. Life is also the active principle which makes the phenomenon of reproduction of other individuals possible. The superlative importance of the life principle is recognized everywhere throughout the biological kingdom, and it finds its maximum economic accent in the biblical question, "What will a man not give for his life?" Naturally, the whole history of evolving law is filled with recitals of how intelligent man has endeavored to protect this priceless principle, life. Every chapter of social evolution is filled with records of how man individually and collectively has striven to protect and preserve his life. The early stone tablets, the laws of Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Romans, Greeks and all ancients, medievalists, and moderns testify that life is the first and essential possession of man and organic matter.

The members of this North Dakota Bar association know that in later times the individualistic doctrine of government grew out of the magnification of the supreme importance of the life