If we take these two illustrations as the starting point for a few general remarks, we can see, first, how the very same problems arise in different legal systems and at different times. Every legal system endorsing the principles of freedomof contract and freedomof testation has to deal with situations where that freedom has been impaired.31 Every legal system recognizing a law of contract, and contract formation by means of offer and acceptance, has to determine whether it also attributes binding force to unilateral promises.32 It would be foolish not to take account of experiences garnered elsewhere and in the past. The illustrations also demonstrate that in the premodern era the discussion of private law problems was not confined to individual states or territories. Matthaeus de Afflictis was read not only in Italy, Leonardus Lessius not only in Spain, Hugo Grotius not only in the Netherlands, Pothier not only in France. As far as the discourse about law was concerned, large parts of Europe constituted an integrated cultural space. Essential factors determining that integration were the universities, the Roman legal sources taught in their law faculties, and the tradition of law as a scholarly discipline.33 Roman law largely provided the intellectual framework within which lawyers thought about the problems of private law. This did not mean they were immune to other influences – frommoral theology, natural law theory, commercial practice, and many more.34 Roman law also some31 Max Planck Encyclopedia2012, 751–5 s.v. ‘Freedom of Contract’ by Hannes Unberath; ibid. 759–62 s.v ‘Freedom of Testation’ by Inge Kroppenberg; Eike Hosemann, ‘Art 1:102’, in Jansen & Zimmermann 2018; Reinhard Zimmermann, Freedom of Testation–Testierfreiheit (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012). 32 Max Planck Encyclopedia2012, 378–383 s.v. ‘Contract (Formation)’ by Martin Illmer; Gregor Christandl, ‘Introduction before Art 2:101’ and ‘Chapter 2, Section 2’, in Jansen & Zimmermann 2018. 33 Max Planck Encyclopedia 2012, 1006–1010 s.v. ‘Ius Commune’ by Nils Jansen. 34 See Reinhard Zimmermann, ‘Europa und das römische Recht’, Archiv für die civilistische Praxis 202 (2002), 243–316; id., ‘Römisches Recht und europäische Kultur’, Juristenzeitung [2007], 1–12. part v • comparative legal history • reinhard zimmermann 240 The European tradition of private law
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