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. An association of practitioners and scholars known as the “Committee on the Establishment of a Permanent Organization for Improvement of Law” published a study that recommended a lawyers’ organization be formed to improve the law and its administration. The committee was chaired by Elihu Root and counted Learned Hand, Benjamin Cardozo, and Samuel Williston among its members. This photograph collection is comprised of portraits of ALI directors, presidents, members, and staff. Also included are photographs from the Annual Meeting, including the 1st Annual Meeting in 1923.

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." To that end, the ALI has held annual meetings since its inception to adopt its restatements and other codification projects, discuss drafts, analyze pending legislation and aspects of the law, set policy, and initialize new projects. The collection, 1923-1995, includes correspondence, addresses and remarks, reports on codification projects and other ALI-related activity, annual meeting programs, yearbooks, proceedings, and related records regarding activity at the ALI's annual meetings.

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 collection, 1922-2004, includes minutes, correspondence, reports, and related records regarding the activity of the American Law Institute's Executive Committee, Finance and Development Committee, Investment Committee, and Membership Committee.

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 collection, 1924-2003, includes minutes, correspondence, reports, and related records regarding the activity of the American Law Institute Council.

In the midst of World War II, the American Law Institute convened a committee in 1941 to study the international community's position regarding human rights law. The committee's charge was to develop a Statement of Essential Human Rights. William Draper Lewis, then Director of the American Law Institute, was chair of the committee and the project's most outspoken advocate, touring the world to deliver speeches on the importance of a code of basic human rights. International in scope and in participation, the committee included representatives from Britain, Canada, China, France, pre-Nazi Germany, Italy, India, Latin America, Poland, Soviet Russia, Spain, and Syria. A version of the Statement of Essential Human Rights was finalized in 1945. The collection, 1929-1987 and undated, includes research material, constitutions, letters, conference and meeting material, drafts, publications, the writings of William Draper Lewis, and other records related to the drafting of the Statement of Essential Human Rights, finalized in 1945. The bulk of the records spans the years 1941 to 1945.

The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) was the result of a joint project between the American Law Institute (ALI) and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Law (NCCUSL). Work on the UCC began in 1945 in response to a perceived need by members of both ALI and NCCUSL to consolidate a number of uniform laws, previously enacted by NCCUSL, related to commercial transactions. NCCUSL was established in 1891 for the purpose of codifying state law by creating uniform laws and model acts. ALI was founded in 1923 in response to a perceived uncertainty and complexity in American Law. The Institute had previously developed a codification of particular areas of the law, known as the Restatement of the Law. Thus, cooperation between ALI and NCCUSL on the UCC presented a likely partnership. The first version of the UCC was approved in 1951. Over the next few years, the states responded to, analyzed, and amended the UCC. In 1961, the Permanent Editorial Board was established to review and help revise the UCC on a continual basis in accordance with the evolving culture of commercial transactions. As a result, the revision of the Uniform Commercial is an ongoing cooperative project between ALI and NCCUSL. The collection, 1935-2003, include historical records, drafts, comments, correspondence, and other materials related to the creation of the Uniform Commercial Code, which consolidated and codified previous uniform laws related to commercial transaction.