Page:Gaii institutionum iuris civilis commentarii quattuor, or, Elements of Roman law by Gaius (Poste, Third Edition, 1890, gaiiinstitution00gaiu).djvu/27



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following treatise is a portion of a particular jurisprudence; it is an exposition of the Civil Law of Rome, that is to say, of her Private law (jus privatum) as opposed to her Public law (jus publicum) in both acceptations, in other words, as opposed both to her Criminal law and to her Constitutional law.

A scientific jurisprudence and a well-arranged code would imitate the method of the natural sciences in proceeding from the universal to the particular, from the general to the special: that is, before expounding the special branches of law, would enunciate the ideas and principles common to all the branches. The advantage gained by this arrangement would be simplification and the avoidance of repetition. Thus Biology expounds the general doctines of anatomy and physiology before it treats in detail of the separate classes of vegetables or animals; and the best German jurists follow a similar method in their Pandects or systematic expositions of Roman law. Gaius, however, in his Institutions, thinking, perhaps, that the concrete should be presented to beginners before the abstract, omits the general or transcendental basis of jurisprudence and plunges at once into the special divisions of the code. A commentator on Gaius, accordingly, if he cannot abstain entirely from preliminary generalisations, must be as brief as he can, and confirm