University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

The American Law Institute (ALI) was founded in 1923 in response to a perceived uncertainty and complexity in American law. Former Penn Law Dean William Draper Lewis was the Institute's first director, running the organization's operations out of his campus office. The ALI was conceived as a representative gathering of the American Bar (including Judges, Lawyers, and Law Professors) for the stated mission "to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice and to encourage and carry on scholarly and scientific legal work." The ALI worked on the First Restatement of the Law from 1923-1944. The project attempted to clarify nine broad subject areas of law: Agency, Conflict of Laws, Contracts, Judgments, Property, Restitution, Security, Torts, and Trusts. Two other subject areas, Business Associations and Sales of Land, were explored but never officially adopted by the ALI. The final draft of the restatement was approved at the ALI Annual meeting in May 1942. The collection, 1923-1959 and undated, includes drafts, comments, correspondence, meeting minutes, state annotations, and other materials related to the First Restatement of the Law, which sought to codify and simplify the law. Nine broad subject areas include: Agency, Conflict of Laws, Contracts, Judgments, Property, Restitution, Security, Torts, and Trusts. Official Institute drafts make up the bulk of the collection. State annotations constitute the second largest portion, while the remainder of the collection consists of correspondence from and to reporters about the restatements.