Many Louisiana lawyers will use the sobriquet "The Green Books" when referring to the legislature's enacted laws of Louisiana. However, few people know the story of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, or readily appreciate the significance of their creation.
Lawyers today are accustomed to an orderly and updated statutory compilation. This was not true prior to the 1950 revision. In 1956, LSU law professor J. Denson Smith clearly stated the problem. "The last previous revision had been in 1870. Since that date the Louisiana General Statutes had been accumulating at an accelerated rate in unorganized array and without any plan or symmetry. The result was that the discovery of the statutory law was attended by great difficulty as well as uncertainty." *
Before the revision, even the manner in which court opinions cited relevant law looked very different.
"Defendant having been convicted of an offense, under Act 119 of 1888, and fined $1,000, prosecutes this appeal, relying on three bills of exception..." State v. Halaby, 148 La. 553, 87 So. 270 (1921)
"The bond was exacted and given in conformity with Act No. 221 of 1914, and the laws amendatory thereof (Act No. 262 of 1916), and the contract is written into the bond." Natchitoches Sweet Potato Co. v. Perfection Curing Co., 153 La. 916, 96 So. 808 (1923)
"... and not as to the means by which such result is accomplished.” Act 20 of 1914, sec. 3, subsec. 8; Act 38 of 1918, sec. 1; Act 85 of 1926, sec. 1; Dart’s Louisiana General Statutes, No. 4393." Langley v. Findley, 207 La. 307, 21 So. 2d 229 (1944)
"...is a neglected child within the provisions of section 1683 et seq., of the Dart’s Louisiana General Statutes, being Act Number 83 of the Legislature of 1921, extra session, in that..." State v. Brockner, 207 La. 465, 21 So. 2d 499 (1944)
* J. Denson Smith, The Role of the Louisiana State Law Institute in Law Improvement and Reform, 16 La. L. Rev. (1956)
