statute Law Revision. 



By Dr. J. W, Carrington, C.M.G., Attorney General. 



[HE condition of its statute laws must always be 

 a matter of very great interest and importance 

 to any political community. It is clearly to 

 the advantage of the State that its individual members 

 should be well acquainted with the laws by which they 

 are governed and whose operation affefts to a greater or 

 less extent their condu6l and business and their relations 

 with one another. We may go further and say that an 

 obligation rests on the State to present to its individual 

 members the body of public laws in a form so convenient, 

 so well-arranged, and so accessible that they can 

 readily make themselves acquainted with its provisions. 

 This duty was recognized so long ago as the fifth century 

 A.D., by the Emperor Theodosius, at whose instance 

 the Theodosian Code — which was a colle6lion of the 

 edi6ls and constitutions of the rulers of the Eastern 

 Empire from the time of CONSTAMTINE — was pre- 

 pared and published. This Code was followed in 

 the ensuing century by the more comprehensive and 

 elaborate colle6lions of laws made and published by the 

 order of the Emperor JuSTlNiAN. It is not necessary or 

 desirable to enter in this place into the history of this 

 colle6lion of Roman Law ; it is sufficient to say that 

 it is not easy to over-estimate its influence on the juris- 

 prudence of modern civilized nations and especially 

 those of the Latin race. But, to quote the remarks of 



