FIELD, David Dudley, American jurist : b. Haddam, Conn., 13 Feb. 1805; d. New York, 13 April 1894. He was a son of the preceding; was graduated at Williams College in 1825, studied law first in Albany, N. Y., and after ward in New York city. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1828; and practised till 1885, distinguishing himself especially by his labors in the direction of a reform of the judi ciary system. In 1857 he was appointed by the State to prepare a political, civil and penal code, of which the last was adopted by New York, and all have been accepted by some other States. The new system was to wipe out the distinction between the forms of action and be tween legal and equitable remedies so that all rights of the parties in relation to the subject under litigation could be decided in one and the same forum and in a single action. The system is the basis of the reformed procedure established in England by the Judicature Act of 1873. In 1866, by a proposal brought before
the British Social Science Congress, he procured the appointment of a committee of jurists from the principal nations to prepare the outlines of an international code, which were presented in a report to the same congress in 1873. This movement resulted in the formation of an asso ciation for the reform of the law of nations, and for the substitution of arbitration for war, of which Mr. Field was the first president. He was a stanch supporter of Lincoln during the Civil War, although a Democrat in his political! convictions. He was a member of Congress for a short time in 1876 to fill a vacancy. Many of his papers on law reform are contained in his 'Speeches, Arguments and Miscellaneous Pa pers' (New York 1884-90).