understanding the law in a historical and comparative perspective 253 its entirety to one side, depending on which of the parents had died first. But this is plausible only in the light of the ancien régime’s conception of family, whereby family property assembled by the deceased’s ancestors had to be kept in undiminished form within the family rather than to pass into another family. (This also, incidentally, explains the traditional aversion in French law to an intestate succession right on the part of the surviving spouse).87 Legal historians shed light on the ways law was studied, practised, and perceived in the past. By illuminating the past we also throw into relief the law as it is today – just as comparative studies can help present-day lawyers appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of their own system. In that respect, legal history and comparative law fulfil a similar function. But there is an additional point. Every lawyer who aspires to be more than a mere legal technician will want to know why he faces this or that legal concept, rule, or principle. The ‘why’ inevitably implies the ‘whence’. It is only the legal historian who can supply that answer. 87 See, for example, Pérès in Reid et al. 2007, 46; Reid et al. 2007, 489. 2
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=