RSK 2

Chapter 8 Conclusions and Suggestions In this short hocik I ha\ e stri\ en not to write as if the ultimate goal for law of the Eurt^pean Union should be the promulgation of a civil code; or whether the goal should be to create a common law hv some directed development.' d o this subject 1 will return. Mv first conclusion is that law is very much a matter of history, do a large e.xtent what the law is today is the result of what the law was yesterday, and what the law is tomorrowthe result of today's law. .\nd yesterday's law is \ ery largely the result of the day before yesterday. .\nd when 1 use the conv entional singular'day,' I really mean the plural 'centuries.' Until the 19th century the French lawon financial loss caused by water froma neighbor's land was basically the law in the sixth century Bv'zantine emperor, Justinian's, Digest. And that law was that as it existed in Rome of the third century a.ix In its turn, 1 V/ery relevant are all the papers in Van Hoecke and Ost, Harmonisation. 165

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