Fromparis to thi- hague a resurgence of oriental peoples on the international political stage, the Soviet revolution and its tormented relationship with Law ... these were powerful circumstances which wcsuld make the most sensitive jurists pause to reflect. The hour of Comparative Law had arrived at last. However, we are nowreferring to a Comparative Law which was more complex and more ambitious than that proposed at the Paris congress of 1900 which, in retrospect, seems grossly outdated: “... tenu prematurement, ne fut malheureusement qu’une experience sans lendemain”.-'*^’ Trained in this field but younger and more daring, Edouard Lambert was the man of the moment. His opposition to natural lawforewarned himagainst innocent univcrsalisms. His rejection of the codes, which he had always accused of blocking progress, turned against each and every attempt at comparison which would limit the approach in the nounow boundaries of continental laws: professional experiences in Cairo and Lyon with Muslim students taught him, moreover, that from the viewpoint of other cultures, a general picture of European continental law was not inconsistent with differences in detail.-"’^ And yet: the recognized leading role of judicial decisions among juridical sources led Lambert to the study of Anglo-American law, to which he naturally devoted the rest of his life. Still in 1919, Lambert published the intellectual plan of the future institute in Lyon, L'enseignement du Droit Comparé with the impressive subtitle, Sa coopération au rapprochement entre la jurisprudence frangaise et la jurisprudence anglo-américaine?'^ Once again we find theoretical proposals articulated as teaching reformbut we already knowthat, both fromthe lectern and the library, the jurist was carrying out a mission of legal policy which would place him in the very field of legislator. At that time, the originality of his endeavours lay in his sensitivity towards Common Law, especially in its transatlantic dimension. Lambert felt that the establishment of the principles of droit comrnun législatif, made necessary for the progress of judicial precedents, and now, following the First World War, of both droit cornrnun de la Société des Nations^'^ and droit cornmun international^''^ required the regulation of an inEdouard Lambert, “Le Droit Compare et la formation d’une conscience juridique internationale. Discours prononce ä la seance de rentré de rUniversitc”, in Revue de I’Universitc de Lyon, 1929,441-463, p. 461. Cfr. Edouard Lambert, L'lnstitut oriental d’EtudesJuridiques et Sociales de Lyon. Serninaire lihre ouvert aux ctudiants de I’orient rnusulman, Lyon, Imp. du Moniteur Judiciaire, 1910; id., “Conferences de M. le Professeur Lambert”, in Revue Al QanoumIqtisad, 7 (1937), 169-184. ■''** Edouard Lambert. L’enseigment du Droit compare ..., Lyon-Paris, A. Rey-A. Rousseau, 1919. Edouard Lambert, “Le droit commun de la S.d.N. Ses organes actuels. Ses organes ä benir. (Le besoin d’une Laculte Internationale de droit”), in Mernoires de la Academie Internationale de Drat Comparé, 1 (1928), 1-32 (offprint); id, Le Droit Cornmun de la Société de Nations, Coimbra, Institut PVaiKjais en Portugal, 1930. Cfr. Edouard Lambert, “Sources du droit comparé du supranational. Legislation uniforme et jurisprudence comparative”, in Recueil d’études sur les sources du droit en I'honneur de Fran(;ois Gény, 111, Paris, Sirev, ca. 1935 (rep. facs. Vaduz, Topos Verlag, 1977), 478-510. 149
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