Education and Research in Roman Lawand Legae History years of the lawschool curricula. At present, most lectures are organised in the first two years. The loss of general historical knowledge makes it increasingly difficult to offer students a profound insight in legal historical developments due to the lack of a general frame of reference. Fromthe other hand the juridical knowledge of students is still very basic so that any more technical approaches are rather useless while it is hard for students to grasp the relevance of certain past achievements when they are not at present familiar with the current situation. This is not a plea for tranferring Roman law and legal history fromthe first two years to the last three years of the curriculum. It is absolutely imperative than any legal schooling should contain a historical dimension fromthe very beginning. It is however an undisguised plea for more lectures in Roman law and legal history at a final stage of the curriculum. These courses should involve both a more general reflection on the foundations of our lawsystemand a more technical and specialised course in the branch of the law students are majoring in. 279 A last remark concerns the search for an European ius commune that has become so fashionable over the last fewyears. For decades it has been one of the very strenghts of Belgian and Dutch legal historical education that it did not solely stress on the national history but reasonably considered the broader European context. In that way legal history can introduce students both in the reality and relativity of European lus commune and of European integration. Nevertheless, using the idea of ius commune as an anchor for legal historical research, should be done without reducing the legal histc^rical demarche. Therefore, chronology, causal relations and the interference between juridical and social aspects in a realistic historical context should be respected. It is not more than natural that each legal professional like any other professional should be consciouss of his social role and responsibility. It is not more than natural that a legal training at a lawschool should stress on the formation of jurists as critical, creative thinkers with a great sence of justice and high moral and social standards. It is already disturbing that this should be a point of discussion at any lawschool. In attaining these goals, the study of the historical development of our own continental law system can be of tremendous help, next to comparative approaches and fundamental reflection in lectures such as legal philosophy, sociology or antropology. Offering a comprehension of the historical foundations and of the processes that led to the current organisation of society is one excellent way of making jurists acquainted with the values on which this system is based and with the importance and relativity of our achievements.
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