Edson Sunderland and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

Abstract

T wAs my privilege to be associated with Edson Sunderland for many years in a major endeavor for the improvement of law administration, namely, the framing of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In this association I came to know what a rare spirit he was, how devoted to the public service he had undertaken, and yet withal how gay and charming a friend and co-worker he always showed himself. In the roster of American workers for better justice he stands preeminent for the length, the original character, and the unique persistence of his labors. But this wholehearted idealism in a particular area still left him occasion for public and community service of a high order, while he remains one of the great American law teachers of all time. For me it is a sacred duty to pay all the tribute of which I am capable to a memory so dear and so cherished. Our endeavor in fashioning the federal rules - shared of course with the other members of the Supreme Court's Advisory Committee - comprised not only the original drafting of the new procedure, but also its critical study, with the suggestion of clarifying amendments, over a period of two decades. But my association with Professor Sunderland dated from a time even earlier. From my first teaching days in the early '20s I had learned to recognize the outstanding leadership he had shown in his chosen field wherein I had become a worker only more or less by chance when my senior Yale colleagues spurned it. I had also come to know him and to recognize him as a scholar through his lively participation in the meetings of the Association of American Law Schools.' In 1930 he served as its president, 2 and I recall with some pride that two years later he was chairman of a committee which nominated me