ABSTRACT
A comparative study of legal aid is not easy without a knowledge of the general system of law and procedure in force in the countries under consideration and some people are apt to maintain, especially when the practice in other countries is quoted in support of a point of view with which they do not agree, that we are quite capable of managing our own affairs and that our arrangements cannot be compared with those of countries where entirely different conditions obtain. The constructive results which can be achieved by the comparative approach have, however, been recently demonstrated by the stimulating article by Dr. E. J. Cohn in the Law Quarterly Review, 1 and some of the statements of Departmental Committees and others with regard to legal aid could never have been made if they had had knowledge of the experience of other countries.
