The Journal: After a Decade

Our legal institutions must have the flexibility to adapt to rapidly changing conditions. Often, laws are passed and implemented at a time when changed circumstances make them outmoded or unworkable. The legal community thus faces an enormous and important challenge: law reform. Legislatures, the framers of policies and the makers of law, need suggestions for law reform. Courts, the interpreters of the laws and the arbiters of private and public disputes, need guidance in dealing with new situations and new statutes. Administrative agencies, the delegated experts carrying out the legislative mandate, need guidance in defining their functions and roles. Suggestions and solutions for the efficient and just functioning of these institutions are not easy to formulate. Nevertheless, without continued evaluation and examination, there is an ever-present danger of institutional stagnation resulting in procedural and substantive inequities. The legal community must maintain a constant flow of new ideas and approaches to a variety of legal topics and problems. The University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform was conceived to meet the need for communicating recommendations for law reform and to provide the basis for thoughtful discourse.