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38 A.B.A. J. 213 (1952)
Naval Procurement during World War II: Its Legal Aspects

handle is hein.journals/abaj38 and id is 213 raw text is: Naval Procurement During World War II: Its Legal Aspects by J. Henry Neale • of the New York Bar (Scarsdale) * This article is a report prepared for the Survey of the Legal Profession. The Survey is securing much of its material by asking competent persons to write reports in connection with various parts and aspects of the whole study. Reports are released for publication in legal periodicals, law reviews, magazines and other media as soon as they have been approved by the Survey Council's Com- mittee on Publications. Thus the information contained in Survey reports is given promptly to the Bar and to the public. Such publication also affords opportunities for criticisms, correc- tions and suggestions. When this Survey has been completed, the Council plans to issue a final compre- hensive report containing its findings, conclusions and recommendations. s Prior to the mobilization and de- fense efforts preceding World War II, the only legal office in the Navy Department was the Office of the Judge Advocate General. It had cognizance of all legal matters, both civil and military. The JAG's office, as it was called, was manned tradi- tionally in the same way as the vari- ous Navy bureaus. Naval and civil- ian personnel were mixed together, but the civilian lawyers in the office were largely long-time government civil service employees in the lower grades, with little or no experience in the private practice of law. The most important posts were filled by Naval officers. The practice for some years had been to have a certain number of young regular officers of the Navy attend a civilian law school during one of their stretches of shore duty. After graduation from law school they would alternate between regu- lar line billets afloat and positions in the Office of the Judge Advocate General in the Navy Department in Washington or comparable legal duties elsewhere. Generally speaking, JAG officers served long terms of regular line duty followed by short legal assignments. In the words of a student of the workings of the Navy Department prior to and during World War II, It was assumed that it was much more important for the Judge Advocate General to know the bow from the stern of a ship and to have a 'feel' for the problems of Naval discipline, than it was for him to be skilled in the intricacies of contract or civilian law.1 Peacetime Naval Procurement Presented Few Legal Problems As a practical matter, there was not much need for highly skilled and ex- perienced attorneys for there were few civil or commercial legal prob- lems. Peacetime government pro- curement was to a great extent a mechanical process. With very few exceptions, contracts were awarded after competitive bidding, and were formalized by contracts of standard form. Under such a system there was no negotiation or bargaining over contract terms. Except for the prepa- ration of specifications, contract writing was largely a matter of fill- ing in blanks. Lawyers were needed only for the most general advice. The practice became established that if a contracting bureau wished legal advice, it could submit a request to the JAG's office. The specific ques- tion would be answered in due course after both request and answer had pursued their tortuous way through channels. No unsolicited advice or legal guidance was offered and a problem would be dealt with only when a specific question was asked. After the fall of the Low Coun- tries and the collapse of France in mid-1940, the tempo of mobilization for defense in this country speeded up. Congress passed two statutes that made a change in the legal set-up of the Navy imperative. Constructive measures to meet the new situation, however, were taken only after a long period of time and much tra- vail. The first of these new statutes was the Act of June 28, 1940,2 which 1. Robert H. Cannery, The Navy and the In- dustrial Mobilization in World War II, Princeton University Press (19511, pages 68, 69. 2. Public Law 671, 76th Congress. March, 1952 * Vol. 38 213

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