Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/666

 The Nineteenth Century Revival of Roman Law Study in England and America By CHARLES P. SHERMAN, D.C.L., ASSISTANT Pnonmon OF LAW, YALE Umvsnsrrv

HE present revival of Roman law study in England and America is largely due to Sir Henry Maine. Shel don Amos’ loyal tribute deservedly ex tols the genius of Maine who “rescued the laws of Rome from the neglect into which they had fallen in England and established forever their essential relation to every system of law having an European parentage."l During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Roman law had been re ceived into England in no small meas ure.2 And this was followed by the gradual development of a native law — the English Common Law. But the “overweening pretensions of popes and emperors" aggravated the narrowing

pired.

In 1852 there was scarcely‘ an)‘

Roman law teaching at Oxford Uni‘?! sity — that ancient English seat of the

civil law.‘

England had become is“

lated from the current of European juridical thought and legal practice.

Not until very modern times when the isolation of England and the greater isolation of America were diminished by improved and frequent means of com‘

munication did the prejudice of Eng‘ lish and American lawyers against ROMn law disappear. And even now the tram‘ tion of such prejudice amd indiﬂrel’eﬂc‘e still lingers too potently in some Parts

of the United States. The year 1870 marks this late-"vt m‘

vival land —ofa movement Roman lawsecond studyOnly in I“ m"

inﬂuences of England's geographical iso lation from the continent, and the re

sult was not only rivalry between the civil and the common law, but also

English hostility to the former as a foreign system.8 The suppression of the study of canon law in the sixteenth century by Henry VIII, followed by the Protestant Reformation, put the study of Roman law into disfavor.‘ By the

time of James I in the seventeenth cen

portance to the Bologna revival of the thirteenth century in its ultimate "lﬂ‘" ence on the developing English law 1mg

a codiﬁed jurisprudence.

Enslaﬂd_"

now in a position to catch up in law W‘

the rest of civilized Europe- Thaw" law of England has progressed "1""

last quarter century is proved, ignonng

all else, by the familiar cediﬁcerions 0‘

During the eighteenth and early

portions of English law. Very fruitful have been the labors of the modern English Romanists 5"":

in the nineteenth centuries the study

as Bryce,‘ Muirhead,’ Amos,l Williams

tury little or no attention was paid

to it.

of Roman law in England almost ex “ See Bryce. "Essays." p. 890.

the

0 James Bryce. now British Ambassador may. ' See Amos. “The History and Principles of the Civil Law of Rome" (dedication to Maine). ’ See Vinogradoﬁ'. “Roman Law in Medieval Europe." pp. 84 at .req.; Scrutton, "Roman Law," pp. 79-124; Guterback, "Bracton and His Relation to the Roman Law"; Hunter. "Roman Law" (4th ed.). pp. 107-116. ’ Bryce. "Essays." pp. 862-863. ‘ See Bryce, "Essays." pp. 861-862.

United ity as Regius States.Professor whose twenty-three of the Civil Law yearsatof0x10 ac. rd

from 1870 to 1893 will long be remembeJ'ed "James Muirhead. Professor of Roman Law a! the University of Edinburgh.

' Sheldon Amos, Professor of Jurisprudence and Roman Law in the Inns of Court. London ’ James Williams, Professor at Oxford.