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.
