The American Law Institute (ALI) was established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. Members of ALI include law professors, attorneys, judges and other professionals in the legal industry. ALI writes documents known as “treatises”, which are summaries of state common law (legal principles that come out of state court decisions.) Many courts and legislatures look to ALI’s treatises as authoritative reference material concerning many legal issues. However, some legal experts such as Professor Michael Risch of Villanova Law School and the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia have voiced concern about ALI rewriting the law as they want it to be instead of as it is.