“lus Commune: Legal History as Argument in the Unification of European Law” The French Perspective By Philippe Cocatre-Zilgien There are a few places in Europe which are particularly exotic to a law historian comingfromFrance: the hall of the Grand Council {Maggior Consiglio) of Venice, in the Doge’s Palace; the hall of the State Council (Raad van State) in the Binnenhof in The Hague; the meeting room of the Permanent Diet {der immerwährende Reichstag) of the Holy Roman Empire in the Regensburg City Hall; and, finally, the beautiful building where we find ourselves today, the Riddarhuset. These are places which have provided the setting for political experiments very different from the French one. Indeed, with a 350 year-long tradition of a central unified state behind him, a French historian is here in uncharted territory. This building, for example, bears witness to the vitality and longevity of the old Ständestaat. But in France, the monarchy was able to prevent the development of any such institution. When I visited Stockholm for the first time as a student, the Riddarhuset amazed and impressed me. I would never have imagined then that one day I would have the honor to be invited to speak here. Yes, I truly feel in an exotic setting here. Almost an intruder. I am all the more grateful to the Olin Foundation for Legal History for generously inviting me to speak at this symposiumcelebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding. Ladies and Gentlemen, dear colleagues, I have been asked to speak to you this afternoon on the role played by legal history in France at a time when many jurists are calling for unification of the legal system in Europe. It is appropriate to ask whether the French partisans of legal unification can find support for their position in legal history. I amafraid that my response to this is very guarded. As far as I can tell, legal history plays only a minor role, in France, in this matter. There is in France such a strong tradition of judicial nationalism, even isolationism, that modern jurists, including legal historians, are not easily able to free themselves from it. However, in the past several years, the political and
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