7. ROMAN LAW INFLUENCE IN CHANCERY, CHURCH COURTS, ADMIRALTY, AND LAW MERCHANT ^ By Thomas Edward Scrutton ^ 1. Roman Law in Coke SIR E. COKE in his Institutes, (themselves Roman in name), takes a decided position as to the authority of the Civil law. He says : " Our common laws are aptly and prop- erly called the laws of England, because they are appropri- ated to this kingdom of England . . . and have no depend- ency upon any forreine law whatever, no, not upon the Civil /or Canon law other than in cases allowed by the Laws of iEngiand . . . therefore foreign precedents are not to be objected against us, because we are not subject to foreign laws " '^ — and again " it is worthy of consideration how the laws of England are not derived from any foreign law, either canon or civil or other, but a special law appropriated to this kingdom." ^ And in a side-note he remarks : " Nota differen- tiam . . . inter malum in se against the Common law, and malum prohibitum by the Civil or Canon law, whereof the judges of the Common law in these cases take no notice." ^ Sir Edward Coke indeed had not a high opinion of the Civil
- These extracts are taken from a treatise on " The Influenoe of the
Roman Law on the Law of England," Part II, cc. VI, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, and Conclusion (1885, Cambridge, University Press, being the Yorke Prize Essay for 1884). ^B. A. Trinity College (Cambridge) 1881; M. A. London University; four times Yorke Prize Essayist; LL. B. Cambridge; Barrister of the Middle Temple 1882; at one time Professor of Constitutional Law and History in University College, London. Other Publications: I>aw of Copyright, 1883; Law of Charter Parties and Bills of Lading, 1886; Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.
- Coke, ii. 98. *iii. 100. "iii. 153.
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