Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/220

 206 //. FROM THE llOO'S TO THE 1800' S mighty effort of science and forbearance which in our own time has unified the law of Germany, and, having handed over the Corpus Juris to the historians, has in some sort undone the work of the ReceptionJ*^ Some venerable bodies may understand the needs of the time, or, if I may borrow a famous phrase, " the vocation of our age for jurisprudence and legislation." Our parliament may endeavour to put out work which will be a model for the British world. It can still set an example where it can no longer dictate, and at least it might clear away the rubbish that collects round every body of law. To make law that is worthy of acceptance by free communities that are not bound to accept it, this would be no mean ambition. Nihil aptius, nihil efjicacius ad plures provincias sub uno imperio retinendas et fovendasJ^ But it is hardly to parliament that our hopes must turn in the first instance. Certain ancient and honourable societies, proud of a past that is unique in the history of the world, may become fully conscious of the heavy weight of responsibility that was '" Some information in English about the new German code will be found in articles by Mr. E. Schuster, Law Quarterly Review, vol. xii., p. 17, and Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation, Old Series, vol. i., p. 191. Despite the careful exclusion of almost all words derived from the Latin (except Hypothek, which happens to be Greek), the new law book may look Roman to an Englishman; but then it does not look Roman to Germans. The following sentences are taken from a speech delivered in the Reichstag (Mugdan, Materialien zum burger- lichen Oesetzbuch, vol. i., pp. 876-7): "In dieser Beziehung ist vor AUem der Vorwurf gegen den Entwurf erhoben, er enthalte materiell kein deutsches Recht. . . . Selten ist ein Vorwurf unbegriindeter gewej sen. .. . Das Sachenrecht ist von A bis Z durchaus deutsches Recht. . . . Was dann den Begriff des Besitzes betrifft, von der ganzen romischen Besitztheorie ist nichts iibrig geblieben. . . . Der allgemeine Theil des Obligationenrechtes ist natiirlich romischen Ursprunges. . . . Kommen wir aber zu den einzelnen speziellen Rechtsgeschaften, so treffen wir auch da sofort wieder deutsches Recht. . . . Auch das Familienrecht ist durchaus deutschrechtlich. . . . Dann ist das Erbrecht durch und durch deutschrechtlichen Ursprunges. ..." The supposition that codifica- tion means romanization is baseless; it may mean deromanization. But the great lesson to be learnt by Englishmen from the German Code is that a democratically elected assembly, which is for many purposes divided into bitterly contending fractions, can be induced to show a wonderful forbearance when uniformity of law is to be attained. "Molinaeus (Charles Du Moulin), Oratio de concordia et unions consuetudinum Franciae, in Opera (1681), vol. ii., p. 691: " Mihi quoque videtur nihil aptius, nihil efficacius ad plures nrovincias sub eodem imperio retinendas et fovendas, nee fortius nee honestius vinculum quam coramunio et conformitas eorundem morum legumve utilium et aequa- bilium."