Study of Law in Roman Law Schools

Abstract

Roman law, which furnished to the world the priceless gift of a completed system of private law actually answering "to the true nature of private law" is still "of great practical importance to the American lawyer of the future," "The civil law, for purposes of comparative jurisprudence and because of its more orderly and scientific arrangements, should in its great outlines and essential character be made an element of instruction to a greater extent than it is in our American law schools;" and these remarks of Judge Dillon, sixteen years ago, now re-echo with increasing force, if for no other reason than the addition to our country, as a result of the Spanish war, of insular dependencies wherein the common law is directly based upon the Roman law. The civil law has directly or indirectly passed into the jurisprudence of every civilized country of the world, and is still potent to help us form rules for the business of life. The fact of the resurrection of Roman law in modern English law is strongly attested by Sir Frederick Harrison: "The present generation has witnessed a really striking phenomenon. This is no less than the re-annexation of the English law on to the great body of principle of which the Roman law is the basis and framework. Henceforward the insularity of English law is a thing of the past."