346 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.

2, July 2008

NOTES CORNER
• Notes on Jurisprudence
• Notes on Western European Legal Traditions

NOTES ON JURISPRUDENCE
Positivism Continued: Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law

Elise G. Nalbandian*

Arguably, the most influential legal theory of the 20th Century in Continental
Europe seems to be Hans Kelsen’s “pure theory of law.” It is solidly in the
line of the positivist tradition running from Hume, through Bentham and
Austin to establish a 20th century ultimate positivism developed from before
1918 up to and beyond 1970’s. This theory’s literature began to develop be-
fore 1918, when Kelsen was examining the Austrian Constitution (which he
would later be involved in rewriting) and it continued until the 1990’s. How-
ever, the 1967 text of “The Pure Theory of Law” is the text that the following
notes rely on for the purposes of studying this theory.
Kelsen’s theory of law is referred to as “Pure Theory of law” because he be-
lieved that any explanation of the nature of law had to exclude all other ele-
ments such as sociology, politics and other disciplines. Kelsen also excluded
any possibility of morality being involved in the question of legal validity. It
is this dual exclusion that inspired another 20th Century jurist, Joseph Raz, to
consider Kelsen’s theory as being “doubly pure”.
Hence, it is possible to summarise that:
a) The premise of Kelsen’s theory is anti-natural law. All natural
law theories assume a dualism of what the law is and what the
law ought to be. Kelsen rejected this dualism. However, he was
very concerned about law and morals and his theory had to ex-
plain these so as not to mix the two concepts.
b) Kelsen believed that law is self-defining, and it should not be de-
scribed politically, sociologically etc. For Kelsen, law is free of the
impurities of other disciplines. This is a defect that Kelsen noticed

* LL.B LL.M, Lecturer in Law, Faculty of Law, St. Mary’s University College
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON JURISPRUDENCE: KELSEN’S PURE THEORY OF LAW 347

in Hart’s and Austin’s theory as these approaches, according to

Kelsen, are non-scientific and unduly mixed with a lot of other
elements.
In short, what Kelsen tried to do for law is what the sciences do to understand
nature’s physical elements. Kelsen adopted an “objective/ descriptive” ap-
proach. His theory looks at the “science of law” which would describe con-
duct as legal or illegal or making statements about legal rights and duties as
objectively as possible. By definition, Kelsen meant what legal and illegal
actions are and what they entail in the form of understanding delicts (actions
which require sanctions) and sanctions (ought statements to the officials re-
quiring them to apply sanctions).
These for Kelsen were issues of effective administration of coercion in a ju-
risdiction and did not raise issues of morality coming into it. Kelsen believed
that taking this approach made sense as law is created by man, for man, and
thus one has to study how law is humanly made and used. To this end, he for-
mulated his theory as a system with several component parts linked together.

1. Law as the primary norm that stipulates a sanction as a di-

rection to officials
For Kelsen, a norm is a description of law. So the question is what is a norm?
A norm is an “ought” statement or a statement that depicts a standard which
includes imperative concepts which tells the officials of law that “if X hap-
pens (delict), then Y ought to apply a (sanction)” whereby Y is the official
and he or she has to apply the necessary sanction. Kelsen wrote his theory
primarily in German, and it is incorrect to assume that he used the word
“ought” in the same way as the natural lawyers (writing in English) or even
Austin used it.
For Kelsen, norms can also take the form of permissions and authorisations
such as using propositions “should”, “may”, “can”. Every type of such propo-
sitions functions as a measure of human behaviour to determine the legal ori-
gins of the actions scientifically and objectively. Hence, in Kelsen’s theory,
“ought” statements come from de-psychologised acts of will which can be
objectively understood. In contrast, Austin believed that ‘ought’ statements
come from the sovereign.
Consider the example of the contrast of the gunman vs. the taxman scenarios
where both parties take money from a number of people. According to Hart’s
descriptive subjectivism they are both doing the same thing . But in their ob-
jective meaning, the gunman’s actions measure against the norms of law as
illegal whereas, the Tax Office has an “ought” permission to take tax money
348 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

from others. The latter is a legal action as it is authorised. Hence law must be
understood according to the objective meaning of commands as measured
against other norms.
Kelsen does not deny the existence of human commands but instead argues
that one has to study norm “commands” objectively against other norms and
it is the conditions under which the commands are issued that makes the
command a law. In other words, what makes a particular act legal is the exis-
tence of a legal norm in respect of which the act is carried out with other
norms in the background authorising and permitting other acts that valdify
the required action stated in the primary norms.

2. Law as a system of norms which are self-organising (Of Hi-

erarchies and Validity)
Commands become a law where laws as norms exist in a system which are
self-organising in a hierarchical system. This part of Kelsen’s theory is not
dissimilar from H.L.A. Hart’s theory of secondary rules which validate the
primary rules. In this respect, Kelsen introduces his pure theory which con-
siders law as a system of norms which are self-organising such that higher
norms validate lower norms and that lower norms furthermore are imputed
by higher norms. In effect, the whole sphere of legal norms is self-referential.
According to Kelsen, norms cannot exist by themselves in the legal system as
one norm depends on another, higher authorising norm. So every norm has to
be related to other legal norms which are in turn related to higher legal
norms. Such chain of norms therefore creates a hierarchy of norms with the
Primary Norms at the bottom of the triangular/pyramid structure. The next
level of norms constitute the Dependent or Secondary Norms which give va-
lidity to the bottom of the triangle, i.e. the primary norms.
Other higher Dependent Norms give validity to the lower Dependent Norms
but this is not an infinite system and there is an apex end point. This apex end
point is at the top of the hierarchy. It is known as the “grundnorm” or the
“basic norm”. The links between all the norms can be understood as validify-
ing forces between the norms.
The diagram below illustrates this hierarchy in the shape of a pyramid. From
the top down. The norms become general (at the top) to specific (at the bot-
tom). Thus the higher norms will be dealing with issues such as how law is
created. And, the administration of justice at the bottom level specifies cer-
tain actions in specific cases with each norm gaining legal validity from an-
other, higher norm.
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON JURISPRUDENCE: KELSEN’S PURE THEORY OF LAW 349

Hence, according to Kelsen all norms originate from primary norms which
derive their power from sanction while they derive their validity from higher
norms. All primary norms are linked to two types of sanction:
a) Transcendental: this is an assumed sanction whereby there is no
necessarily physical or even imminent or present punishment.
b) Social and Physical sanctions: this is an imminent sanction from
stigmas to other forms of punishments which are authorised by
primary norms.
Primary norms are concerned with authorising bodies to apply sanctions
while citizens are not directly addressed by the norms and therefore are inci-
dental to this part of the theory. In a bid to keep his theory pure, Kelsen did
not consider citizens except as subjects who may cause the official actions
which require the hierarchy of legal norms to be in place.
The next level is that of the dependent norms that can either take the forms of
byelaws expressing the primary norms or enabling acts that also express the
primary norm.
Finally, at the top of the pyramid, there is the basic norm or the Grundnorm
which gives the whole system its validity while putting a logical and finite
end to the hierarchy. This is a presupposed (on account of the actual activity
of the officials applying the primary norms) and transcendental concept
350 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

which goes beyond facts and can be termed as a legal necessity as it is under-
stood that if a norm exists, its validity is presupposed and hence, as the valid-
ity can only flow from a higher norm down to a lower norm, then the higher
norms exist which in turn derive their validity from other higher norms until
the culmination of a valid Grundnorm. Hence, the existence of a Grundnorm
depends on the fact that the primary norms are consistently and regularly ap-
plied by the officials while on the other hand, the Grundnorm ultimately
gives legal validity to the whole system.
To sum up, it is possible to note that while the validity of norms depends on
higher norms, the validity of the Grundnorm depends on the efficacious ap-
plication of the lower norms. So to establish whether the Grundnorm works,
what needs to be seen is whether the directions given to the officials as per
the primary norms are applied. This is where the discussion of Kelsen starts
and must logically end thereby indicating the circular nature of Kelsen’s ar-
guments.

3. Can a norm exist if it is not effective?

Keslen devised a system whereby the test of legal validity was efficacy and
from the discussion above it becomes obvious that a norm cannot exist if it is
not effective. Efficacy for Kelsen can be judged by two criteria. The first cri-
terion is to see whether the rules that can be deduced from legal norms are
obeyed.
And the second criterion is whether the primary norm stipulates certain ac-
tions that the officials must take if the rule to be complied with is not obeyed.
If there is a break-down or a revolution, most people start to ignore the
norms, and therefore, they are no longer effective. What happens is that the
norms are no longer effective and therefore, no longer valid and thus the
Grundnorm will have to change to accommodate this allowing for a new set
of legal norms to be created.
An illustration can be made by a hypothetical case whereby a rule can be de-
duced saying “Do not do X” as inferred from the norms that “if Y does X,
then (an official) ought to…” If a large proportion of the population commits
the crime X, and furthermore, if the officials of the society do not enact what
they ought to as per the norm, the norm (in Kelsen’s view) is no longer valid,
and it can no longer apply and will have to be replaced. The only way to re-
place this is if the Grundnorm changes to accommodate the situation. Ac-
cording to Kelsen, if the officials of a state no longer (efficiently and effec-
tively) apply the primary norms, then the Grundnorm of the state is no longer
valid and has to change.
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON JURISPRUDENCE: KELSEN’S PURE THEORY OF LAW 351

4. Criticisms of Kelsen’s pure theory

Although Kelsen’s theory is a respected theory of law, it suffers from several
major defects. Its reclusive emphasis on the elements of law without consid-
ering other elements such as politics, morality and questions of justice leaves
a significant gap in the theory because law does not exist in a vacuum. Cri-
tiques of Kelsen believe that this theory is an exercise in logic, and that there
is lack of reality in his theory thereby rendering it insufficient to understand
the whole implications of legal systems and laws.
Furthermore, Kelsen’s emphasis on the role of officials in the system of law
unduly focuses on the issue of law enforcement. In effect, it ignores the ordi-
nary citizen’s role in the state as well as their interests in the development of
law. For Kelsen, the common citizens have little to do with the law other than
acting in the ways which justify the application of sanctions by the officials.
This is an unnecessarily one-sided view of the law which only looks at the
external, coercive element of the law while disregarding the fact that laws
can also bind citizens to act or to forebear to act in certain ways. Moreover,
Kelsen, (in rejecting the subjective meaning of acts) ignores a very important
point in Hart’s theory that citizens also obey the law out of a sense of duty.
This is an aspect of citizens’ interaction with law which Kelsen has ignored
completely.
Kelsen’s theory holds that, legal norms can exist only in a system which is on
the whole efficacious and that such a system is comprised of a hierarchy of
valid legal norms, which again predicates upon a valid basic norm in such a
manner that validity is based on efficacy. Efficacy is also described as mean-
ing the regular and effective application of sanctions by officials and does not
at all deal with issues such as the legitimacy of the law-making authority.
This may therefore imply that anyone who is capable of usurping power in a
given society can then enforce his new power by applying sanctions effica-
ciously which then results in the ‘legitimate’ change of the basic norm. This
is a problematic feature of the theory as it seems to legitimize revolutions and
power usurption ex-post facto by allowing claims of legitimacy due to a
change in basic norms.
Finally, the identification of the basic norm in any society is an extremely
problematic exercise because its pre-supposed and transcendental nature
makes it ambiguous. This renders the whole system of validation unclear be-
cause the top-most validifying norm is nearly impossible to identify or ex-
plain. This failure may have the effect of proving that the concept that holds
Kelsen’s theory together is its weakest link, which has the effect of weaken-
ing the whole theory.
352 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

In conclusion, it is to be noted that Kelsen (like Austin) is not only a positiv-

ist, but also an Imperative theorist. Hence, some of the criticisms regarding
Austin can also be forwarded in relation to Kelsen’s theory. Imperative posi-
tivists hold the view that sanctions (in one way or another) constitute a neces-
sary part of all valid law. The existence of a large body of laws which do not
require sanctions (power-conferring laws etc.) proves that this is an incorrect
view.
Moreover, imperative theories of positivism emphasize the separation be-
tween law and morality. However, the link between law and morality while
unclear, can be said to exist especially in light of questions of justice and as
equity. Morality can also be involved in citizens’ “sense of obligation” to
obey the law, at times, irrespective of sanctions.

N.B- For notes on Austin, see Elise G. Nalbandian “ Notes on Jurisprudence: Early
Legal Positivism: Bentham and Austin” Mizan Law Review Volume 2, No. 1,
page 147
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON WESTERN EUROPEAN LEGAL TRADITIONS 353

ZWEIGERT AND KÖTZ ON

WEST EUROPEAN LEGAL TRADITIONS
Abridged with adjustments mainly from:
Konrad Zweigert and Henin Kötz (1992) Introduction to Compara-
tive Law, Oxford: Clarendon Press (Pages 63- 99, 138-162, 187-211,
296-344) *

Elias N. Stebek * *

1. Classification of Legal Traditions

1.1- Purpose of classification
The grouping of legal systems into legal families is made primarily “for taxo-
nomic purposes with a view to arranging mass of legal systems in a compre-
hensible order.” The first purpose of classification of legal families is thus
technical. In other words, classification facilitates a better understanding and
comprehension of the study of past and present legal systems/ traditions.
The second purpose is to enable current legal systems to borrow legal materi-
als and mechanisms of solving legal problems from past or modern legal sys-
tems/ traditions they are affiliated to. Such materials can serve as authority in
the interpretation and development of a contemporary legal system provided
that due consideration is made to new realities and current needs.
1.2- Tests or criteria of classification
In the course of identifying tests of classification, we need not examine every
difference between legal systems. Only important or essential differentiating
qualities are regarded as hallmarks of the classification. The following fac-
tors are crucial for the style of a legal system or legal family:
• historical background and development,
• predominant and characteristic mode of thought in legal matters,
• distinctive institutions,
• the kind of legal sources a legal system acknowledges and the
way it handles them, and,
• ideology.
*
Abridged in April 2004 as part of Sum- ** Dean, Faculty of Law, St. Mary’s
mary Notes on European Legal History University College
354 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

a) Historical development is one of the factors which determine the style of

modern legal systems. The common law is perhaps the clearest example
of this. Yet, it is not easy to group the legal systems of Continental Europe
(i.e Europe other than the United Kingdom ) on the basis of this factor.
b) Another test in the classification of legal systems is a distinctive mode of
legal thinking. The Germanic and Romanistic families are marked by a
tendency to use abstract legal norms, to have a well articulated system
containing well-defined areas of the law. Looking at the salient features of
the Anglo-Saxon legal family enables us to realize how distinctive these
stylistic elements are. These differences in style correspond with the dif-
ferences in the Continental and English mentalities, attributable to differ-
ent historical developments, especially those of an intellectual order. If
we may generalize, the Continental European tends to making plans, to
regulating things in advance, and therefore, in terms of the law, to drawing
up rules and systematizing them. He/she approaches life with fixed ideas,
and operates deductively. The Englishman, on the other hand, inclines to
improvising and towards delay in making a decision until he has to. Theo-
rizing has little appeal; and so he is not given to abstract rules of law. The
Englishman is content with case-law as opposed to enacted statutes and
codes of law. But recently, the attitudes of Common Law and Continental
law have been drawing closer. On the Continent, lawyers have begun to
treat ‘jurisprudence constante’ of the courts as an independent source of
law. At the same time, the need for large-scale planning and ordering of
social affairs has forced Anglo-American law into using abstract norms
and statutes.
c) Certain legal institutions are so unique that they lend a distinctive style to
a legal system. For instance, the institutions which gave the socialist sys-
tems their distinctive style would include the different kinds of ownership,
the peculiarities of contract in a planned economy… and many others.
d) The style of legal systems is also marked by the choice of sources of law
which are recognized by the legal system and by the methods of interpret-
ing and handling them in connection with the court machinery and rules of
procedure.
e) Finally, the ideology of a legal system, in the sense of political or eco-
nomic doctrines or religious belief, may have a distinctive effect on its
style. This is manifest in the case of the religious legal systems and of the
socialist systems. The legal ideologies of the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic,
Romanistic, and Nordic families are essentially similar; and it is because
of other elements in their styles that they must be distinguished.
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON WESTERN EUROPEAN LEGAL TRADITIONS 355

To conclude, these are the stylistic factors which enable us to identify the
families of legal systems. But, the weight to be given to each of these factors
varies according to the circumstances. Ideology is an effective ground for
distinguishing the religious and socialist systems, but does not help us to
separate the legal families of the West. There it is history, mode of thought
and distinctive institutions which distinguish legal families. Sources of law
are distinguishing features of Islamic and Hindu law and also help us to di-
vide the Anglo Saxon from the continental legal families, but we cannot use
them as a basis for distinguishing between the Romanistic, Germanic and
Nordic families.
1.3- Classification within the Romanistic-Germanic civil law
tradition
The term ‘civil (continental) law seems to be too broad, and we can reclas-
sify civil law tradition into:
• the Romanistic legal family comprising the French, Italian and
other legal systems that have through reception promulgated laws
that significantly share the content, style and features of the
French Codes,
• the Germanic legal family, that includes Germany, Austria, Swit-
zerland, etc., and,
• the Nordic legal family that includes the legal systems of North-
ern Europe.
Sections 2 and 3, here-below, highlight the first two legal families of the civil
law tradition (i.e. the French and Germanic Civil Codes); and Section 4 for-
wards an overview of the English common law legal tradition.

2-History and features of the French Civil Code

2.1- French private law until the eighteenth century
The Romans had introduced their law in Gaul as they did in all the provinces
they conquered. Even after the fall of Rome in 476 A.D, Roman law did not
lose its validity in parts of France where it continued to serve as the law of
the non-Germanic people. In 506, Alaric II, king of the Visigoths, passed a
statute that contributed to the survival of some knowledge of French law in
the Southern part of France.
In the North, the incursion of the Franks and the establishment of the Frank-
ish state did largely oust Roman law, because the Franks brought with them
their own developed customary laws of Germanic origin which were later
crystallized as statutes. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the Frankish state broke
356 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

up into many different systems, and a number of law books were written in
the 13th century. Yet, the customary laws of Northern France depended
mainly on oral tradition of various localities and thus gave rise to the prolif-
eration of different customary laws thereby creating a great legal uncertainty.
In 1454, Charles VII ordained that customs of various territories be written
down and those which were already recorded be drafted anew with the coop-
eration of a royal committee of experts. The task of recording the customs
took longer than expected and was resumed several times in the decades and
centuries that followed.
In spite of prolonged efforts towards writing down customs, only the major
ones were recorded. The mere task of writing down the major customary
laws paved the path towards the gradual recording of the common customary
laws (droit coutimier commun). However, the problem of legal uncertainty
was not yet resolved.
As French kings consolidated their power, the creation of unitary private law
common to the whole of France became indispensable. Series of jurists
played a vital role in the development of the foundation for the emergence of
a common private law for the whole of France. In the Seventeenth and eight-
eenth centuries, we find works of jurists which were indeed useful materials
and models for the draftsmen of the later generations.
These efforts took a long time to materialize, and France was very far from
having a unified private law on the eve of the 1789 Revolution. The wide dif-
ference between the written laws of the south (drot écrit) and the customary
laws of the North subsisted. Although important customs of the North were
written down, the documents rather revealed the difference between the cus-
toms of the various localities rather than their unity and coherence. The fol-
lowing ironic remarks of Voltaire were made during such period of legal un-
certainty and extreme legal diversity:
“Is it not an absurd and terrible thing that what is true in one village is
false in another? What kind of barbarism is it that citizens must live
under different laws? … When you travel in this kingdom, you
change legal systems as often as you change horses.”
The idea of unified French private law had become a leading theme of French
jurisprudence and there was the intellectual basis for the unification of the
law, both in theory and in practice. And, ultimately, the impetus of the
French Revolution and the corresponding subjective factors such as the au-
thority of Napoleon Bonaparte and his prompt decision making style turned
the idea of unified French law into a reality.
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON WESTERN EUROPEAN LEGAL TRADITIONS 357

2.2- French private law during the revolution

The French Revolution (1789 to 1799) thoroughly altered the traditional so-
cial, economic and political order thereby rooting out the absolute monarchy,
the feudal regime of land, the tie between the crown and the clergy, the coun-
try’s traditional division, the court system, the tax system and the various in-
stitutions of the former regime. No longer were citizens required to deal with
the intermediary status groups of the former regime, but directly with the
state itself.
Legislation was instrumental toward freedom of citizens from the traditional
authority of feudal, church, guild and other status groups, and laws targeted
at the entitlement of citizens with equal rights. In pursuit of these aims, hec-
tic and radical legislation of private law was made during the years of the
revolution.
The legislation of the French Revolution brought about far reaching social
transformation. In 1791, the decrees of the Constituent Assembly abolished
all feudal servitudes and differences (based on age and gender) which had
existed in the law of successions. In 1793, the National Convention devised
various restrictions against the transfer of ownership in the direct line so that
descendants could inherit equal share from the property of ascendants.
In the realm of family law, the paternal rights of the father over adults were
abolished. The requirement of paternal consent to marriage was reduced to a
minimum. The freedom of divorce was extremely widened. The Central
Register of Civil Status was introduced. Illegitimate children recognized by
their parents were declared to be equal to legitimate children, save that
‘adulterine children’ (i.e. children at the time of whose conception either par-
ent was married to a third party), could not have more than one-third of the
inheritance of a legitimate child.
The Constituent Assembly had also decreed that ‘a code of civil law common
to the whole kingdom will be drawn up.’ The first draft was rejected in 1793
for being too detailed although it had only 697 articles. A simpler and more
philosophical version was recommended.
The following year, the drafter (Cambacérés) offered a second draft with only
297 articles, but the National convention found it too sparse and terse. Cam-
bacérés produced a third draft in 1796. The legislative organ of the Director-
ate was undertaking a protracted discussion over the draft when it was inter-
rupted by the coming into power of Napoleon in 1799. It was Napoleon’s
Codes which ultimately brought these efforts and aspirations towards frui-
tion.
358 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

2.3- The enactment of the Code civil of 1804

Things moved briskly after Napoleon took over power. Napoleon appointed
a commission of four prominent experienced professionals to draft the Civil
Code. Many of the extreme positions of the laws enacted during the revolu-
tion were abandoned by the more composed draftsmen. The draft was sub-
mitted (in sections) to the Tribunal that had the power to adopt or to reject it.
But the Tribunal rejected the very first draft out of envy and suspicion to Na-
poleon rather than reasons of substance.
Napoleon withdrew the whole legislative proposal stating that the calm set-
ting and consensus required for the adoption of the Civil Code had not yet
been acquired. Then he purged members of the Tribunal who were hostile to
him. After a year, the legislative process was resumed and in 1803 and 1804
thirty-six separate statutes were passed and were finally consolidated by the
Law of March 31, 1804 as ‘Code Civil de Français.’ Years after his down-
fall, Napoleon remarked that:
“It was not in winning 40 (forty) battles that my real glory lies, for all
those victories will be eclipsed by Waterloo. But my Code civil will
not be forgotten. It will live forever.”

2.4- Essential features of the French Civil Code

a) Accommodation of revolutionary principles and tradition
One of the major features of the Code civil was the accommodation of the
gains of the revolution and longstanding traditions and customs. The French
Civil Code of 1804 was generated by the spirit of the French Revolution
(1789 to 1799) which sought to eradicate feudal institutions of the past and
institute in their place the natural law values of property, freedom of contract,
family, and family inheritance. The Civil Code of 1804 embodied the results
of a long historical development by blending the traditional legal institutions
from the written law (droit écrit) of the Southern France, influenced by Ro-
man law, and the customary law of the North influenced by Germanic-
Frankish customary law.
This north-south division should not be overstated because both laws shared
many elements and features in common. Moreover, the reception of Roman
law in the South was not dogmatic reception because various laws of Roman
law origin were adopted on the basis of their inherent merit and depending on
their conformity with customs and values of French society.
The Civil Code retained the great achievements of the revolution and is also
based on a large number of traditional institutions. The principle of equal
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON WESTERN EUROPEAN LEGAL TRADITIONS 359

division of estates upon succession, the complete secularization of marriage,

the total abolition of feudal servitudes and many other principles that repre-
sent the gains of the revolution were embodied in the Code.
However, the Code abandoned or qualified rules that were extremely radical.
For example, divorce was made possible, but the !804 French Civil Code
used many complex rules of procedure which severely restricted the possibil-
ity of divorce by mutual consent. The freedom to dispose of one’s property
on death or in life had been largely abolished during the revolution in the aim
of parceling out landed estates; but was reintroduced in the Code though only
to a much lesser degree than the German or Anglo-American legal systems.
During the French revolution, the requirement of parental consent to mar-
riage was considered as restricting an adult’s freedom to marry. But the
Code civil required parental consent for marriage of a man under the age of
25 and a woman under the age of 21. At 25, a man was allowed to marry
without parental consent, but only if he had sought their consent three times
by issuing a ‘respectful request’ at monthly intervals. For a man over thirty
(30), a single request (sommation) was sufficient.
Another retrogressive step taken by the Code civil was in the domain of mat-
rimonial life. The revolutionary principle of the equality of citizens had been
applied between spouses, and thus Cambacérés had in his First Draft pro-
posed that ‘the rights of spouses in the administration of their property are
equal. Every legal right which sells, binds, burdens or pledges the property
of either spouse requires the consent of both.’
But in his Third Draft, Cambacérés abandoned this position and, as the Code
civil was later to do, the draft gave the right to administer the property to the
husband alone. It was believed that the principle of equality should control
social relationships, but in the matrimonial sphere, the precedence of the hus-
band was taken as the natural order, and it was believed that to deny it would
lead to quarrel and destroy the pleasures of domestic life.
Similar distinction was made in the case of divorce. The Code civil allowed
the husband to demand divorce by proving the wife’s adultery, while a wife
could demand divorce only where the husband has kept his mistress in the
matrimonial home. According to Portalis, one of the draftsmen of Code civil,
“the infidelity of a wife bespeaks greater vice and has more dangerous conse-
quences than that of a husband.”

b) Accommodation of written laws and customary laws

Another major feature of the Code civil is its accommodation of the written
law of the southern part of France and the customary laws of the North. Por-
360 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

talis wrote:
‘We have made a compromise, if such an expression may be used,
between the droit écrit (written law) and the customs, whenever we
have been able to reconcile their provisions or to modify each in the
light of the other, without infringing the unity of the system or caus-
ing widespread dissatisfaction.’
The written law (droit écrit) was nearly pure Roman law with regard to con-
tract law, the law of neighbours, the law of wills, and the system of dowry.
Customary rules, and in particular the customs of Paris, won principally in
family law and the law of inheritance. Acquisitive prescription in good faith
(Article 2279, Code civil) is in line with German legal thinking.

c) The influence of natural law

The tenet of the natural law theory is that there are autonomous principles of
nature, quite independent of religious belief, from which one can infer a sys-
tem of legal rules which, if given intelligible form according to a plan, can
act as the basis of an orderly, reasonable, and moral life in society. The early
version of the Code civil was strongly and directly influenced by the revolu-
tion, and largely dominated by this idea of natural law. But the influence of
natural law diminished as the Code progressed.
The idea and conception of the Code civil are products of the natural law of
the Eighteenth Century Enlightenment, but the value of historical continuity
was increasingly recognized as it took practical shape. To many contempo-
raries, the Code seemed to be a ‘reaction against the revolution’, but succeed-
ing generations who witnessed its extraordinary influence have acclaimed its
‘spirit of moderation and wisdom.’

d) Compressed legislative style rather than extreme details

At the initial phase of the principle of separation of powers, doctrinaire ad-
herents of the principle advocated that the legislative ought to enact laws that
are clear and detailed so that judges should have no power at all to develop
the laws but apply them (as they are) without room for arbitrary judgments.
For example, the decree that introduced the Land Law of Prussia forbade
judges ‘to indulge in any arbitrary deviation, however slight, from the clear
and express terms of the laws, whether on the ground of allegedly logical rea-
soning or under the pretext of an interpretation based on the supposed aim
and purpose of the statute.’ The statute with its 17,000 (seventeen thousand)
odd paragraphs often amuses us today by the detail into which it had de-
scended, but the intention was to give the judge a precise answer to every
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON WESTERN EUROPEAN LEGAL TRADITIONS 361

question with a view to rendering interpretation, as far as possible, unneces-

sary.
In this regard, the draftsmen of the Code civil adopted a more sensible
course. The drafting committee believed that the function of the legislator
was to set up general rules; and its interference in questions of interpretation
affecting the affairs of individuals would be undignified, time-consuming and
would also prolong lawsuits. Consequently, Article 4 of the Code civil ren-
ders a judge responsible if he refuses to make a decision ‘on the ground that
the law is silent or obscure or inadequate.’
The Code civil avoids the danger of being too detailed. The draftsmen clearly
realized that even the most ingenious legislator could not foresee and deter-
mine every potential problem in human relations which might arise and they
believed that room should be left for judicial decision to make the law appli-
cable to unforeseen individual cases and to enable laws adapt to changing
circumstances.
The best example of the compressed legislative style of the Code civil is
found in Articles 1382 to 1386. These five paragraphs cover the entire
French law of extra-contractual liability. These rules are two hundred years
old, and are sill in force, almost unaltered in spite of all the economic and
technological changes which have taken place.
In fact, the draftsmen of the Code civil went too far in the degree of compres-
sion. For instance, the General Civil Code of Austria and the German Civil
Code have, respectively, 40 and 31 paragraphs on the same subject matter of
torts.

e) Other features of the Code civil

Although the French Civil Code has many virtues, it has shortcomings such
as technical inaccuracies and rooms for interpretation that could have been
avoided. There are terms that are inexact, incomplete or ambiguous. Such
terms lack the terminological exactitude which the German Civil Code has.
Moreover, it must be noted that the ideal man in the minds of the draftsmen is
not the ordinary man, the artisan or the day labourer, but the man of property,
who was considered as the responsible man of judgment and reason, knowl-
edgeable about affairs and familiar with the law. The Code thus guaranteed
the freedom of the class engaged in economic activities, and in property, es-
pecially landed property. Freedom of contract is therefore the principle which
dominates the law of obligations in the Code civil, restricted as little as possi-
ble by mandatory rules of law.
362 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

2.5- Adaptation of the Code civil to change

When one considers the economic, social and political changes that have oc-
curred since the time of Napoleon, one may well ask how the Code managed
to remain in force in France until today. It is through legislation of special
statutes, judicial interpretation and legal writing that the Code civil has man-
aged to adapt to socio-economic changes.
a) Legislation of special statutes
In many areas, especially in family and inheritance law, the legislator has
kept the Code in line with socio-economic changes by altering its text
through special statutes. The position of the married woman has been im-
proved and the right of children born outside wedlock has been recognized.
Moreover the extremely wide freedom of contract embodied in the Code civil
has been subject to due elaboration and regulation (through special statutes)
where the unregulated free play of contractual autonomy led to consequences
that seemed unacceptable to new social values and needs.
b) Judicial interpretation
The courts (jurisprudence) have also played a significant role in adjusting the
rules of the Code civil to modern requirements. For instance, on the basis of
the rule of Article 1384 of the Code civil, French courts have developed the
law of accident compensation that match with the special dangers of the mod-
ern world and its advanced technology. In labour law, the courts, strongly
supported by the legislature, have developed rules of social protection of
workmen and employees. As in Germany, labour law has been able to gradu-
ally develop as an independent area of law outside the Code civil. Although
Article 544 of the Code civil allows an owner to deal with his property as he
chooses, French courts have developed the doctrine of abuse of rights to limit
the rights of owner of property. These illustrate the key role played by courts
in adopting the Code civil to social change.
c) Doctrinal interpretation
As the Civil Code aged, legal writing (doctrine) became increasingly signifi-
cant in the development of French private law. In the years immediately fol-
lowing the enactment of the Code, doctrinal literature merely expounded the
text of the Code grammatically and logically, and ignored judicial decisions.
But, towards the end of the nineteenth century, doctrinal writing and legal
materials encouraged the judge to construe the Code not simply logically and
systematically, but in light of the requirements of society as it developed, the
actual usages and practices in the relevant area of commerce, and also the
results of the researches of sociologists and comparative lawyers.
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON WESTERN EUROPEAN LEGAL TRADITIONS 363

With the help of legislation, judicial decision and doctrinal writing, the Code
civil has been able to adapt itself to new changes and requirements. There
have frequently been demands and efforts for a thorough overhaul of the
Code; but it has not yet materialized. And, after numerous efforts towards
overall reform of the Code civil, the French legislator has duly focused on the
partial reform of the Code in certain spheres that require amendment.

3- History and features of the German Civil Code

3.1- Factors that led to vast reception of Roman law
Germany came in contact with Roman law around the middle of the 15th cen-
tury; but the reception of Roman law was much greater in Germany than in
France. Central power was weakened in Germany, and this lack of tight cen-
tralization of imperial power and the strength of the principalities were very
conducive to the reception of Roman law. There was no common German
judicial system and fraternity of German lawyers that could oppose or delay
the reception of Roman law.
By contrast, the legal methods developed by German law became increas-
ingly unsuited to the needs of time. German customary laws allowed the
judge to make decision on the basis of traditional legal knowledge, practical
wisdom, experience and practicality, and from an intuitive perception of what
best answered the objective and concrete facts of the case.
But such method of finding law based on tradition seemed increasingly in-
congruous as the social and economic circumstances of the later Middle Ages
became more complex, variegated and developed. There was thus a legal
vacuum, and in effect, Roman law flowed in because it offered a whole range
of concepts and methods of thinking. Moreover, Roman law was not consid-
ered as foreign law because the Holy Roman Empire ruled by Germans was
the successor of the Roman Empire.

3.2- The impact of the 17th century Enlightenment

The Enlightenment brought about a ‘decisive change’ in the intellectual cli-
mate of Europe. It sought to free the individual from his medieval shackles
to rational criticism, and to make it possible for individuals to create a new
view of the world on the basis of reason. This intellectual movement had
immense effects on law. In Germany, it gave lawyers a standpoint of histori-
cally conditioned detail, and helped to purge obsolete legal institutions and
put the law in a new systematic order.
One particular product of the enlightenment was the idea of codification, the
idea that the diverse and unmanageable traditional law could be replaced by
364 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

comprehensive legislation, consciously planned on a rational and transparent

order. In France, the ideas of the Enlightenment and the law of reason took
the form of direct political action and led to the Revolution of 1789. In Ger-
many, however, the law of reason broke loose from its roots in general phi-
losophy and became a system of principles of private law to be taught and
learnt.
The greatest systematizers (Puffendorf and others) utilized rigorous logical-
mathematical deduction and inferred rules of increasing particularity from the
most general principles of the law of reason and made the law appear an art-
ful and articulated system, orderly and comprehensible. The intellectual con-
structions of the law of reason had no direct influence in German legal prac-
tice, but the German princes and their high officials, brought up in the spirit
of the Enlightenment were influenced by these ideas and they became the
intellectual stimulus of reform.
In France, the ideal of legal reform was the product of a passion for freedom
by a large class of citizens. But in Germany the reform came from the altru-
istic paternalism of enlightened authorities eager to perform their duty.

3.3- Codification in the 18th century

The first code of this period was written in 1754 by the Bavarian Chancellor,
Kreittimayr. The Code indicated the legislator’s belief in reason for it solved
long-contested questions in a reasonable manner and was drafted in a clear
and pointed German. The most important codification of the period was the
General Land Law for the Prussian territories of Germany from 1794 to the
coming into force of the German Civil Code of 1900.
The project towards the codification of the Civil Code began on the initiative
of Frederick II. The draft embodied the spirit of law of reason and Freder-
ick’s brand of enlightened absolutism. Its structure reflected Puffendorf’s
system who saw men as having a ‘double nature’ as an individual and as part
of a larger group in society. The Code was not designed to alter society but
to portray it faithfully, completely, and objectively so that it states where eve-
ryone stood in the state complex.

3.4- The emergence of the Historical School of Law

Around the beginning of the 19th century, the sprit of reform of the enlighten-
ment and the philosophy of rationalism gave way to the desire to regulate (in
detail) the actions and relations of individuals. The Romantic Movement un-
covered the elemental irrational powers in human life, and optimistic ration-
alism gradually grew weaker.
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON WESTERN EUROPEAN LEGAL TRADITIONS 365

It was at such an epoch that the German Historical School of Law arose with
Savigny (1779-1861). The Enlightenment had the view that the legal order is
a deliberately planned and purposive creation of an official legislator guided
by reason. In contrast, the Historical School of Law (Savigny and his follow-
ers) saw law as a historically determined product of civilization, having its
roots deep in the spirit of the people and maturing through a long process.
The school considered law as a product not of the formative reason of a par-
ticular legislator, but as an organic growth of the ‘inner secret powers’ of the
‘spirit of the people’ working through history.
After the fall of Napoleon, the Restoration in Europe and the dynasticism of
the various German rulers rendered democratic integration of the whole of
Germany unlikely. The idea of a unified German Civil Code as the one advo-
cated by Thibaut (a professor in Heidelburg) was severely opposed by Savi-
gny, on the ground that the time was not yet ripe for the production of a uni-
fied civil code.
Thibaut proposed to replace the intolerable diversity of the German territorial
laws by a general German civil code on the pattern of the French Civil Code,
and he believed that this would lay the basis for the political unification of
Germany. On the other hand, Savigny’s view was that legislation being inor-
ganic and unscientific, was not the right way to create a common German law
and would do violence to the traditions it opposed. What was needed in Savi-
gny’s view was a thorough absorption and cultivation of the legal material as
it had grown through time, a task he would entrust to an ‘organically progres-
sive legal science which would be common to the whole nation’.
3.5- The Pandectist School of Law
In actual practice, Savigny and his followers turned exclusively to Roman
law in its original form. Such idealization of Roman law led Savigny and his
followers to the unhistorical view that the legal forms and institutions created
by Romans possessed a sort of eternal validity. Savigny and his followers
addressed themselves to systematizing, ordering and integrating the concepts
of Roman laws.
The Historical School of law thus produced the Pandectist School whose
only aim was the dogmatic and systematic study of Roman material. For
Pandectists, the legal system was a closed order of institutions, ideas and
principles developed from Roman law. They believed that one only had to
apply logical or ‘scientific’ methods in order to reach at the solution of any
legal problem. As a result, the application of law became a mere technical
process, a sort of mathematics obeying only the ‘logical necessity’ of abstract
concepts and having nothing to do with practical reason, with social value
366 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

judgments, or with ethical, religious, economic or policy considerations. The

German method of legal thinking as manifested by remote theorizing profes-
sors and the lack of organized and powerful class of practicing lawyers was
conducive to the emergence and development of Pandecticism.
However, the Pandectist school could at least produce a method of studying
law which was common to the whole of Germany and had brought about in-
terpretation at the theoretical level. Set of clearly distinguished concepts
which contributed to the technical sophistication of the German Civil Code
were created, but the Pandectists did not bother to seek out the real forces in
legal life, and did not seek ethical, practical or social justification for their
principles.

3.6- Codification of unified German private law

The law of negotiable instruments was unified in 1848, and the General Ger-
man Commercial Code was enacted in 1861. Both enactments were gradu-
ally adopted word by word by all German states. In 1865, a draft of the law
of obligations was produced by a team of famous professors and judges. The
draft served as a model for later drafts.
After Bismarck’s efforts led to the unification of Germany in 1871, laws
were enacted to unify the judicial system, civil procedure and bankruptcy. In
1874, a commission (The First Commission) was appointed to produce a draft
code of German private law. The draft was published in 1887, along with its
supporting ‘Motive’.
There was a strong criticism against the draft’s unduly scholastic structure
largely attributable to the abstract conceptualism of the Pandectist School. It
was also criticized for the legal jargon in which it was drafted. It was accu-
rate and precise at the cost of clarity and comprehensibility. The third point
of criticism was the draft’s complicated system of cross-referencing.
With regard to content, it was criticized for bypassing many vital legal tradi-
tions of Germanic origin and for ousting the traditional ethical obligations
and the relationship of trust in family and society in favour of extreme imper-
sonal individualism. Moreover, it was criticized for its emphasis on freedom
of contract which favoured the socially stronger and propertied classes.
The Second Commission was formed in 1890 and its changes were insuffi-
cient. In substance, only ‘a few drops of socialist oil’ were added to the First
Draft. The second draft was published in 1895 and was adopted in 1896 after
minor alterations. Only the Social Democrats voted against it. The entry into
force of the German Civil Code was set for January 1, 1900 at the Emperor’s
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON WESTERN EUROPEAN LEGAL TRADITIONS 367

personal request with the hope that the new century would have a brilliant
start marked by unified private law for Germany.

3.7- Features of the German Civil Code of 1900

Codes of law either consolidate the results of reconstruction of society or re-
inforce the status quo. The former codes are inspired by ideas and models of
society in the context of contemporary and prospective realities. The latter
codes, by contrast, are created at a time of relative social and political stabil-
ity, and in effect, their spirit is often retrospective and reflective, seeking to
maintain a situation favourable to the establishment. The German Civil Code
is one of such rather conservative codes.
For the German Civil Code, the typical citizen is not the small artisan or fac-
tory worker, but rather the higher and propertied class with freedom of con-
tract and freedom of competition who is also entitled to take steps to protect
itself from harm. This is so, because the Civil Code merely regulated and
articulated the economic and social realities as they actually existed under
Bismarck’s united Germany.
In language, method, structure and concepts, the German Civil Code is deep
and exact, but abstract. It is not addressed to the citizen, but to the profes-
sional lawyer. Repetition is avoided by cross-referencing that requires skills.
Yet, it lacks the elegance and the compactness of the French Civil Code. Its
advantage is that its exact and technical provisions are not as ambiguous as
their matching provisions in the French Civil Code. The German Civil Code
is highly appreciated for its intellectual merits due to its profound theoretical
foundation and level of academic excellence. Many codes have thus to a lar-
ger or smaller extent benefited from the Code.

3.8- Adaptation of the Code to social change

The legislator and courts alike have been able to qualify and limit the liberal
(laissez faire) principles of law of contract whenever they allowed one party
to threaten those basic conditions of decent life which the state of today must
guarantee to its citizens. Important areas of the law outside the Code (such as
labour law) have been created by the legislator and these laws are largely in-
dependent of the German Civil Code.
The rigorous individualism of the original contract law of the German Civil
Code has been qualified by means of devices developed by the courts. For
example, the general clause that requires everyone to perform a contract ‘in a
manner required by good faith’ has proved a splendid device for adapting the
law of contract to the changed social and moral attitudes of society. Judicial
368 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

decisions may manifest the risk of being undirected and variable. Yet, some
degree of certainty has been created through doctrinal writing and interpreta-
tion.
The tort law of the German Civil Code still rests on the principle of fault.
However, special statutes have been able to update tort liabilities that arise
out of fault and other tort liabilities that had not been envisaged by the Code.
In Family law, the conservative and patriarchal stipulations of the Code in
favour of the husband and other outdated provisions have been brought in
line with altered social and economic circumstances through legislation.
Yet, courts bear the task of fitting the original text of the Code to modern de-
mands. In France, it was the gaps and technical imperfections of the Code
civil which gave the judges the opportunity to develop the law. But the courts
in Germany have relied mainly in the general clauses, embodied in Articles
138, 157, 242 and 826 of the German Civil Code. The general clauses have
operated as a kind of safety valve, without which the rigid and precise terms
of the German Civil Code might have exploded under the pressure of social
change.

4. The development and features of English common law

N.B. Although various principles, concepts and rules that have de-
veloped in the common law tradition have been embodied in our
codes, Ethiopia’s legal system (other than the laws of procedure) has
pursued the civil law tradition. The abridged notes hereunder are thus
duly shorter than the notes on the civil law tradition. Other sources
have been used to substantiate the abridged notes from (Zweigert and
Kötz’s) Introduction to Comparative Law, pp. 187-211.

4.1- The beginning of English legal history

A crude and empirical legal heritage (some of which was in written form)
existed under Anglo-Saxon kings, especially since the reign of Alfred the
Great (871 to 900 A.D). Yet, English Common Law actually begins since
1066, after the Normans conquered the British Isles. William I and his suc-
cessors established a tight, integrated and simply organized feudal system,
with the King as the supreme feudal overlord. An effective central royal au-
thority was organized with the absolute power of the king, who (among other
powers) claimed the role of “dispenser of justice” or “fountain of justice”.
William I divided all land among some 1,500 (one thousand and five hun-
dred) of his most important followers, in return to which they had to take an
oath of fealty (faithfulness) and perform specified services or pay sums of
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON WESTERN EUROPEAN LEGAL TRADITIONS 369

money. The tax system was restructured by William I himself, and all prop-
erty holdings were inscribed in the Domesday Book of 1086.
The most important taxpayers were the biggest land owners. The taxes paid
were thoroughly checked by the Curia Regis, a council consisting of the King
and his advisers. Under Henry I (1110 to 1131) there developed out of the
Curia Regis, a Supreme Treasury- the Exchequer which gradually took on the
character of a court as it decided all legal questions connected with taxes.
Fiscal reasons also entailed increasing intervention by the central royal ad-
ministration in civil and criminal law. The Curia Regis had interest in private
legal disputes over large estates. Thus the king took exclusive jurisdiction
over serious crimes, and royal justice developed in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. Although the kings gave up the practice of presiding as chief Judge
very early, the courts always followed the King in his travels throughout the
country, until the Magna Carta in 1215 enacted that the Royal Courts should
be fixed in one particular place for the convenience of the public.

4.2- The emergence and development of case law

Case law grew up in England mainly because the early English judges were
Normans. They were foreigners to England and they were bound together by
an Esprit de corps (team or group spirit, or strong feeling of shared beliefs
and values) which made them respect each other’s decisions, especially when
these decisions dealt with matters which were strange and unfamiliar to them.
Esprit de corps involves feeling of fraternity, pride and honour in the group
to which one belongs. The Norman judges had a strong sense of brotherhood
and discussed their cases when they met and started the practice of following
each others decisions.
Where the best argument in favour of a particular case was the decision of a
brother judge in a similar case, they began to take notes of cases and in that
manner law reporting came into existence. Law reporting became an estab-
lished practice in this manner, and this enhanced the development of case
law, i.e., looking for legal rules and principles from preceding judgments.
The growth of case law in England was also accelerated by the reaction that
set it against the reception of Roman law. Local laws were found to be unsat-
isfactory with the advance of civilization, and the remedy of introducing Ro-
man law was attempted. But English lawyers and judges resorted to the fic-
tion that “there was no legal problem that could not be solved by the applica-
tion of customary laws, and that every judge carried about in his brains a
complete body of such law of amplitude sufficient to furnish principles which
would apply to conceivable combination of circumstances”.
370 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

Maine points out that It is possible that the judges were influenced by Roman
law principles, and that they borrowed from Roman law, but they did not rest
the authority of their pronouncements on either the Roman law or Ipse Dixit
(i.e. on what is asserted but unproved), but on the fiction that their judgments
indicated the custom of the land. It was always as indicating the custom of
England, and not as an authority, that these decisions were acted upon and
followed during the 13th and the 14th centuries.
Soon however, this fiction was dropped, and decisions began to be followed
for the sole reason that they came from judges who were delegates of the
King entrusted by the King himself to administer justice. During the time of
James I, official reporters were first appointed, and case reports facilitated
and enhanced the development of case law.

4.3- The development of permanent courts and the decline

of local rules of law
Permanent central courts developed gradually out of the Curia Regis. The
courts were staffed by professional judges, and fixed at Westminster. Their
jurisdiction was established by 1300 and lasted unaltered into the 17th cen-
tury. In addition to the Court of Exchequer, there were the Courts of Com-
mon pleas with jurisdiction over normal lawsuits between private individuals
and with the power to supervise and review traditional lower courts, which
had been run since 1066 by royal officers called sheriffs. There was also the
Court of the King’s Bench which dealt with matters of particular political
importance. Moreover, the King sent ‘traveling justices’ into the provinces
with increasing frequency from the 12th century onwards.
In the centuries that followed, these developments led to the centralization of
justice and to the unification of English law. The jurisdiction of local bor-
ough and feudal courts gradually diminished. The local rules of law were not
abrogated but gradually faded into insignificance in contrast to the law ap-
plied by the royal judges. Thus England, at such early stage, enjoyed a uni-
fied law, called for this reason ‘common law’, and there never existed in
England the problem of legal uncertainty, a factor that rendered codification
expedient in France and Germany.

4.4- The definition of ‘common law’ and its positive role

against absolutism
‘Common law’ refers to that part of the law which was created by the King’s
courts of England as opposed to ‘statute law’ which comprises the enact-
ments of Parliament. ‘Common law’ is also different from ‘Equity’. The lat-
ter does not refer to a group of maxims of fairness, but a part of substantive
2 (2) Mizan Law Rev. NOTES ON WESTERN EUROPEAN LEGAL TRADITIONS 371

law distinguished from the rest by the fact that it was developed by the deci-
sion of a particular court, i.e. the Court of Chancery.
Unlike statute law, an absolute monarch cannot take common law into his
grips and enact common law as per his instant whims and desires. This is
because common law takes decades and centuries to emerge and develop.
And it has the tendency to bring forth very strong strata of stakeholders in-
cluding practicing lawyers, judges and others, who due to the complexity and
quantity of case law materials incline to enjoy the monopoly of the profession
with its corresponding challenges and opportunities.
English lawyers were devoted to the maintenance of common law. Thus law-
yers consistently supported the Parliament in its struggle against the Crown.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, various monarchs attempted to establish an ab-
solute monarchy by imposing an absolutist legal system under the pretext of
enacting Roman law which could support the political claim that whatever
pleased the King had the force of law.
Ultimately, however, common law prevailed and was considered as a mighty
weapon in the hands of the parliamentary party in the struggle against the
absolutist prerogatives of the king. In its long history, common law had de-
veloped certain tenacity, and its cumbrous and formalistic technique had en-
abled it to challenge direct attack from above. Ever since, the Englishmen
have thought of the Common Law as being the essential guarantee of free-
dom thereby serving as protection against the arbitrary inroads of absolute
authority.

4.5- Blackstone’s Commentaries on Laws of England

Until the 18th Century, all the great lawyers were practitioners and almost
always important judges. But in the 18th century, William Blackstone (1732
– 1782), a lawyer who, after a moderate career as a barrister became Profes-
sor in Oxford, had a lasting influence in English law. Blackstone’s fame
rests in his Commentaries in the Laws of England, a four-volume systematic
portrayal, based on the whole of English law and criminal law. The commen-
taries were published in 1765– 1769 and were considered as the leading trea-
tise on the common law of England
The commentaries are believed to have rendered English law more compre-
hensible because English case law had grown more confused. The Commen-
taries were not as conceptually sophisticated and profound as the ones that
were written by continental lawyers. Yet, Blackstone’s accomplishment was
a big step in the systematic exposition of English common law.
372 MIZAN LAW REVIEW Vol. 2 No.2, July 2008

4.6- Utilitarianism –versus- sociological jurisprudence

During the 19th century, Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), the leader of the
Utilitarian School contended that the rules of Common Law are based on his-
torical accident rather than rational design, and that they were obstacles on
the way of major reform towards “the greatest good for the greatest number
of people”. He also criticized the traditionalism of the conservative practitio-
ners. Bentham promoted legal reform which he thought could only be
achieved through codification.
Bentham’s reformist views had influence in altering the court structure and
inducing reforms in the law of civil procedure and to some extent, in certain
areas of substantive law. His efforts had also influenced the US legal system,
until the (20th century during which) schools of Sociological Jurisprudence,
Realism and others became predominant in their influence against extensive
codification.