EPILOGUE I wrote this hook as an indication for the I’uropean Union of how legal histor\' has an impact on nimorrow's law. But the implications are wider and apph' in all legal swstems. Legal historx' always has an impact. Law is always a mi.xture of in\ ster\-, realit\’, and imagination. One of m\’ heroes has long been Rudolph \on jhering, and I hear the echoes of Dcr Kampf urn Rccbt \w this hook. In the absence of legislation, indi\ iduals to protect their rights must fight. And, savs he, they ha\ e a social and moral dut\' to do so. But legislation is often not forthcoming, and e\ en when it is, it frequentU’ remains unchanged for centuries. The Roman action on damage caused h\' water from a neighbor's land K^uctio aquaepluviac arcenäae) was introduced around qci n.c:. by the ’I-xelvc I'ahU's, was ne- \’er replaced at Rome or Byzantium, and cast shadow’s in IVance until the 19th centur\’.' Lhe lex Aquilia of around 287 b.c. on wrongful 1 Of course, the influence was not only on France: see, e.g., Roshana Kelbrick, 'Die gelding van die actio aquae pluviae arcendae in die Suid-Afrikaanse reg,' 6 Fundamina (2000), pp. yff. 180
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