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The Green Bag

tered in 109 American law schools sadly need the uplifting professional and scien tiﬁic impulses which result from con tact with Roman law. Our present system of legal education is defective because it does not give sufficient atten tion to or ignores Roman law. That

distinguished

Englishman,

Professor

Dicey, from his observation of American Rhodes scholars in law at Oxford, re

cently made the following very perti nent comment, that "there ought to be a wider knowledge of the law of Rome than is given in the celebrated law schools of America, and also an acquaintance, which can hardly be obtained from cases

American bar. It would lead, among other beneﬁts, to a diminution of the

present professional incompetencya of too many men called to the bar, and would impart an altogether too much

needed ethical uplift to the profession as a whole. The American lawyer, as well as his

English brother, must no longer re main ignorant of the world-current 0f jurisprudence and the mission of modern Roman law. Then will he perforce naturally plan and strive for the scien

tiﬁc betterment of American law through codiﬁcation along the lines of the best

from the works of the best. . . legal

modern codes-that Herculean but not impossible task of the immediate future. The American revival of Roman

writers-of England and America.""

law study will then reach its full fruition.

alone, with the principles to be gathered

Roman Law, as in England, should be required for admission to every r‘ On this subject, see address of Fredcn'c R_ 10 A. V. Dicey, "The Extension of Law Teaching at Oxford," 24 Harv. Law Rev. p. 3 (Nov. 1910).

Coudert, "The Crisis of the Law and Professional Incompetency." Am. Bar Association Convention, Boston, Aug. 30. 1911.

New Haven, Conn., October.

Sir Frederick Pollock on “The Genius of the ,9‘

Common Law SERIES of eight lectures on “The Genius of the Common Law" was given at Columbia University October 2-13, by Sir Frederick Pollock. The lectures were the ﬁfth course on the James S. Carpentier foundation, on which James Bryce, Prof. John C. Gray, Arthur Lionel Smith, and David Jayne

a condensed summary of them with any

hope of doing justice either to their sub stance or to their form.

At the same

time, an abridged statement may suc ceed in presenting some of the most salient thoughts of each lecture, and in

indicating the main drift of an extremely

Hill have already lectured, and were

interesting discussion. In the opening lecture, the speaker

well reported in the New York Times.

declared that it was his purpose

It is of course impossible to publish here

follow the adventures of Our Lady of

1 With acknowledgments to the New York Times, from whose reports of the lectures this abridgment has been prepared.

the Common Law, and to ﬁnd out how she had fared in all her varied adven tures since the Middle Ages. It would

to