Western codification changed legal practice surprisingly little once enacted

Evidence

Codes were successful in the West for reasons that by now are familiar. These were sparsely settled states in a hurry to build up a legal system. A few of them were familiar with the civil-​law tradition. In none of the western states did the bar have a vested interest in old rules, especially rules of pleading. Codes were a handy way to get new law, a way of buying clothes off the rack, so to speak. But what happened once the codes were on the books would have disgusted Field. Courts and lawyers were not used to codes. Lawyers and judges had common-​ law habits and prejudices, and they handled the Codes accordingly. Sometimes code provisions were simply ignored. … Nor did legislatures keep their hands off the Codes. They let broad statements of principle alone (they never made much difference, anyway), and added all sorts of accretions. Most likely, the Codes had little or no impact on legal behav­ior, either in court or out. The living law of California, a Code state, was not much different from the living law of noncode states—​or at least not in any way that the Codes would help to explain. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2356

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Restatements descended from the codification movement yet were never binding law — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2358; European codes imposed colonial-style uniformity on their own legal systems; British codification transformed Shari’a into state-administered Anglo-Muhammadan law (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The Restatements descended from the codification movement yet were never binding law #qualifies (0.75) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2358
• European codes imposed colonial-style uniformity on their own legal systems #qualifies (0.75)
• Legal prohibition without religious-institutional embedding remains only nominal #corroborates (0.75) — , The Rod and the Child, 8206
• British codification transformed Shari’a into state-administered Anglo-Muhammadan law #qualifies (0.72)