294 HISTORY OF ROMAN LAW 



cannot be told here in detail: to do so would require a volume for 

 each country. We all know the result to be that at the present date, 

 notwithstanding the rapid growth of our own commonwealth, 

 more people are living under the legal system derived from Rome 

 than under that derived from Westminster Hall. 1 Germany parted 

 company with the Roman group in 1900, but her new imperial 

 code shows the influence of Roman conceptions, and just as the 

 New York codes have not altogether banished Blackstone from 

 New York, so it can scarcely be expected that a nation trained in 

 the Pandekten will soon forget their principles. An eminent French 

 scholar has shown that to understand fully the French dotal system 

 we must go back to the SC. Velleianum. 2 And it is well known 

 that the Code Napoleon, which in its turn has had a contagious 

 influence somewhat similar to that of Justinian, is fundamentally 

 Roman. It is interesting to note in passing that this Exposition 

 commemorates among other things the important fact that, by the 

 cession of the Louisiana territory, a vast area was withdrawn from 

 the sway of that modern Roman code, though in the state of Louisiana 

 where the Code Napoleon had taken firm root, it still continues to 

 flourish. 



There can thus be no doubt that the history of Roman is vitally 

 connected with that of Continental law. Indeed, if we adopt the 

 view of historic continuity which Freeman inculcated, we may say 

 that the history of law on the Continent is simply the history of 

 Roman law brought down to the present date. It need hardly be 

 said that I have not taken into account that form of speculation on 

 abstract legal principles best known by its German name Naturrecht, 

 which cannot be said to have any historical connection with the 

 ius naturale of the Digest, and which is quite un-Roman both in its 

 matter and in its methods. 3 



When we turn to consider how Roman law is related to that 

 other great legal system which was built up in England, and trans- 

 planted to this country and to her other colonies, we find the sailing 

 by no means plain. In theory, of course, Roman law is an absolute 

 alien to us, and our own law has an unblemished Teutonic pedigree. 

 But we may at once suspect some flaw in this theory when we find 

 it stated that in England at the beginning of the last century, in 

 the Spiritual Courts, the Military and Admiralty Courts, and the 

 courts of both universities, "the civil law and its form of legal 

 proceedings greatly prevail." 4 Since these may be looked upon as 

 so many reservoirs of Roman law, the question is, did they ever leak? 

 Did the civil law, and if so, how far, ever percolate through the pen 



1 Bryce, Studies in History and Jurisprudence, p. 74. 



2 Gide, Etude sur la Condition de la Femme, p. 429. 



3 See Lorimer's Institutes of Law, 1880. 



4 Butler, Horae Juridicae Subsecivae, p. 77. 



