| "Looking Back
on a Glorious Past 1691-1991"
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 Albert Rosenblatt
 Phylis Bamberger
 James Folts
 Vivian Berger
 Haywood Burns
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This May Journal, marking the New York State Supreme Court s entry upon its fourth century, both celebrates that court s glorious past and looks to an equivalent future. History buffs as well as crystal-ball gazers should find their appetites well satisfied by this special Tricentennial issue. Looking Back on a Glorious Past The issue begins by looking back to May 6, 1691, when the New York Assembly passed a law establishing a "Supreme Court of Judicature," to be "Duely & Constantly Kept" at specified times. It is safe to pronounce after 300 years that the Assembly s mandate has been faithfully discharged. Through three centuries of evolution, revolution and reconstitution, the Supreme Court endures as a premier bench serving, and advancing, justice throughout the State. The two articles introducing this Tricentennial issue span the three centuries. The first article, by Appellate Division Justice Albert Rosenblatt, breathtaking in its scope and efficiency, explores the firm foundations of the Supreme Court. A delightful wit, love of subject matter and deft hand in presenting it, are evident as well in Supreme Court Justice David Boehm s complementary tales of the courts, judges and lawyers of the Western frontier of New York State. Focusing on a single facet of Supreme Court history, Judge Phylis Bamberger traces the jury through 300 years, amply establishing her thesis that the jury both democratizes the legal process and reinvigorates allegiance to the fundamentals of democracy. Her explication of jury exemptions throughout the centuries is a fascinating chronicle of changes in societal attitudes, certainly as to age and gender, but in other areas as well. Judge Martin Stecher concentrates on a different facet of history — the origin of popular election of Supreme Court Justices, taking us back into New York s feudal system and other surprising remnants of our past. Finally, archivist James Folts gives new dimension to the description of the Supreme Court as a "court of record," tracing that term from its earliest common-law roots, and describing as well the various efforts to gather, preserve and make available court records. Looking Ahead to the Next Century With this rich history as prologue, the Journal then peers into the future, projecting the practice of law in the next century. We begin in outer space. As Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. notes in his article, the law of outer space is no fantasy today: the subject already is knocking at the door, demanding attention. Long before its next centennial, New York s Supreme Court no doubt will grapple with problems of equitable distribution of property situated on Mars, contracts and conspiracies executed outside the Earth s atmosphere, and tortious acts on distant planets causing injury to persons within the State. Columbia Law School Professor and Vice Dean Vivian Berger s prognostications for civil liberties in the next century are a sobering return to Earth. She sees fundamental rights receiving increasingly cramped definitions at the federal level, turning attention more and more on state courts and legislatures, and on new — or newly emphasized — rights. Into this last category Dean Berger places the questions engendered by medical breakthroughs, several of which are themselves the subject of an article by Buffalo attorney Grace Marie Ange. Already bedeviling in the year 1991, Ms. Ange s questions regarding new reproductive technologies assure that lawyers and judges of the future will have no dearth of knotty problems to fill their work days. Finally, no Bar Journal glimpse into the next century would be complete without a view of both legal education, provided by CUNY Law School Dean Haywood Burns, and the legal profession, offered by New York City attorney Stephen Rackow Kaye. Dean Burns envisions profound change in the academy of the future, affecting who is taught and by whom, as well as law school subject matter and method. Like Dean Burns, Mr. Kaye also foresees fundamental change in the profession, concluding that the ultimate issue is "whether the intellectual core of lawyering in its widely diverse forms can survive the assaults of routinization, specialization and technology, and can respond to social, economic and political change." While the issue is sprinkled throughout with Supreme Court history, these two articles furnish the perfect end note for a tricentennial celebration: what the Supreme Court will be depends not only on the strong foundations that have been built, but also on those being built today and on the contributions of the generations yet to enter the profession. Judith S. Kaye Maryann Saccomando Freedman
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 David Boehm
 Martin Stecher
 William J. Brennan
 Grace Marie Ange
 Stephen Rackow Kaye
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 The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York | |||||
