the mediet al West permitted the strict standards proof to be otherwise maintained. Fhe action in ancient Athens against a human unknown killer, animal or inanimate object, presett ed the integrity of the legal system because it was brought in a special separate The trial of the rats of Autun"' presett ed the integrity of the systemby the insistence on due process, et en in a crisis, et en against a hated, non-human adtersary. dlie rats, after all won.''" court. X 1 observed that Hans Kelsen had great problems in trying to fit trials of animals into his theory of positive law. I le is not alone, d'hough 1 did not deal with the issue, such trials do not really fir m\' own rather different minimal definition of law: "I.aw is the means adopted to institutionalize dispute situations and to validate decisions gi\ en in the appropriate process which itself has the specific object of inhibiting further unregulated conflict. Kelsen, further, also would ha\ e problems with the Israelite curse unless one, rather fatuously, wanted to argue that the rules were designed to regulate the conduct of the priest. MM 58 I say nothing about the trials discussed by Blackstone because, like him, I amat a loss to know their origins. 59 Cf. the trial of the beetles in the vineyards. 60 lamnot suggesting that The Last Best Chance is necessarily intentionally used to preserve the integrity of the system. Other typical features of law operate to the same effect. Thus, the prime factor in legal change is borrowing: but, strangely perhaps, one system is usually chosen to be the source more often than a variety of sources. Again, in a particular systemthere will be accepted parameters of reasoning: some types of argument, but not others, wilt be acceptable. 61 The Nature of Law(Edinburgh, 1977), p. 22. 148
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