626
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
