The centennial of the American Law Institute is a landmark event. A lifespan of one hundred years is significant for a law reform project. Most such initiatives terminate when they achieve their limited goals, they fail, or members lose interest when their funding runs out. Instead, the American Law Institute is the preeminent legal reform organisation in the United States and remains an enterprise in full vigour, with an enormous number of projects completed and an impressive array of projects in forward motion. The American Law Institute: A Centennial History brings together an outstanding group of expert scholars, several of them current or former Reporters for the ALI Restatements of Law, to provide an in-depth scholarly history of the ALI, its role in legal reform, and the various ways it has impacted law in the United States. The resulting collection of essays provides original and important perspectives on both the ALI and its relevance for American Law. This book offers a window into the course of legal thought over the past century and is a must-read for academics, practitioners, and all those interested in the way laws are shaped within the United States.

The ALI (American Law Institute) and UNIDROIT (the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law) are preeminent organizations working together toward the clarification and advancement of the procedural rules of law. Recognizing the need for a “universal” set of procedures that would transcend national jurisdictional rules and facilitate the resolution of disputes arising from transnational commercial transactions, Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure was launched to create a set of procedural rules and principles that would be adopted globally. This work strives to reduce uncertainty for parties that must litigate in unfamiliar surroundings and to promote fairness in judicial proceedings. As recognized standards of civil justice, Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure can be used in judicial proceedings as well as in arbitration. The result is a work that significantly contributes to the promotion of a universal rule of procedural law. The American Law Institute was organized in 1923 following a study conducted by a group of prominent American judges, lawyers, and law professors. Their recommendation that a lawyers' organization be formed to improve the law and its administration led to the creation of The American Law Institute. UNIDROIT was founded in 1926 as a specialized agency of the League of Nations. It exists as an independent intergovernmental organization on the basis of a multilateral agreement, the UNIDROIT Statute. Its purpose is to study needs and methods for modernizing, harmonizing, and coordinating private laws between states and groups of states and to prepare legislative texts for consideration by governments.

Vol. for 1920 includes proceedings of the association's summer meeting held Aug. 23-24, 1920.