countries.' Lorenzo and |an Smits gave me depth and focus. But I have roamed widely; law and mystery. One cannot understand law in societv without an awareness that law is not always as it seems, or as it is claimed to be. The old ius commune was in a real sense accidental, the result of common heritage and massive borrowing. A new ins could be the result ot planning, llien it is fitting to keep in mind the very real peculiarities of law.^ I’his hook is different from other studies on a common private law for the European Union. I am not dealing directly with the ad\ isahility of a common private law code for the whole of the European Union as set out in directives from the Community.' Nor am 1 dealing with the possible structure of any such code as for instance with the t]uestion of whether a model such as the Erench or German code should be followed. Even less am I arguing for particular rules in contract, delict or familv law. Mv concerns are more general; the lessons that may be learned from legal history for the formation of an\’ new ius commune. 3 Inevitably the roots of the book go back beyond 1999. Thus chapter 6 derives frommy paper, 'Curses, Oaths, Ordeals and Trials of Animals,' 1 Edinburgh LawReview(1997), pp. 42off; and chapter 5 from Legal Transplants and European Private Law(lus commune Lectures on European Private Law, 2, Maastricht, 2000). 4 For the dangers of unplanned ius commune see Jan M. Smits, The Good Samaritan in European Private Law, (Deventer, 2000). 5 See, e.g., Ewoud Hondius, 'Towards a European Civil Code: General Introduction' in a European Civil Code, pp. 3ff. For a bibliography see )an Smits, Europees Privatrecht in Wording (Tilburg, 1999), pp. 287ff. See also Ewoud Hondius, 'Finding the Law and Harmonization of Private Law in Europe,' in Europaische Rechtsangleichung und Nationale Privatrechte(BadenBaden, 1999), edd. H. Schulte-Nölke and Reiner Schulze; Stephen Weatherill, 'If I'd wanted you to understand I would have explained it better,' Legal Issues of the AmsterdamTreaty(Oxford, 1999). ®dd. D. O'Keefe and P. Twomey, pp. 2iff.; Making European taw(Trento, 2000), edd. Mauro Brussani and Ugo Mattei. A comprehensive bibliography is set out at the beginning of each chapter of a European Civil Code. For a theoretical approach see Laurent Mayali, 'Romanitas and Medieval Jurisprudence,' in Lex et Romanitas: Essays for Alan Watson, ed. Michael Hoeflich (Berkeley, 2000), pp. i2iff. 16
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