Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/385

349 MILITARY LAW— A STUDY IN COMPARATIVE LAW 349 MILITARY LAW — A STUDY IN COMPARATIVE LAW A GRANITE boulder lies in a fertile plain underlaid by lime- ■^ ^ stone. To the passer-by it is merely a rock. To the tiller of the soil it is merely an obstacle. Its existence is taken for granted and its presence needs no explanation. The embryonic scientist who has advanced far enough in his studies to know granite from limestone and to know that they are not ordinarily associated in situ, recognizes in the boulder an alien, an intruder. He does not know whence it came or how it reached its present location, but he reaHzes that its position upon fertile soil in a limestone formation needs some explanation. This is the be- ginning of wisdom with reference to the granite intruder. The explanation which the scientist will give for the phenomenon de- pends upon the extent of his knowledge and upon his previous beliefs and opinions. In the early days of geology, Noah's Flood was a sort of first aid to the perplexed, and served as a solution of all sorts of puzzles. Our scientist may invoke this theory and assume that the boulder was washed from a remote outcrop by the great flood. At a later period and with wider knowledge, he may find that something more substantial than water is neces- sary to explain other phenomena which he has discovered; and he may believe that it was carried down from some Laurentian formation by some great ice movement. What further explana- tions scientists may offer us in the future are matters of conjec- ture. The starting point, however, is the recognition of the fact that the granite boulder came from some remote point and that its presence here needs an explanation of some sort. In the last year and a half many of us who have been studying Anglo-American law have been attempting to teach military law. We have recognized at once that in many respects it is an alien. Its foreign character does not consist in its content.^ As far as 1 For a brief comparison of English Military Law with that of France, Germany, Russia and Italy, see J. E. R. Stephens, "English and Continental Military Codes," 5 JOURN. OF COMP. LeGIS. (n. S.), 244.