The Value of Roman Law to the American Lawyer of Today

Abstract

In spite of the progress of legal education in the last decade there still lingers in some places that now time-worn belief that a knowledge of Roman law is of no use at all in the legal profession. This view of the present value of Roman law is obviously superficial. It is based on the assumption that because the Roman state and tribunals perished centuries ago, therefore Roman law itself has long been dead also. But this conception of the fate of Roman law is historically inaccurate and false. The spirit of Roman law did not die,-on the contrary it is still very much alive in our midst. It was the majestic and beneficent Roman law which more than any other single element brought civilization back to Europe following the barbaric deluge of the Dark Ages.