.\t the Lnivcrsit\’ of (ieorgia 1 teach a course in C'oinparatix e Law that inevitahlv has a strong historical component. After the first classes some students querulousK' ask "When are we coming to modern law.=" 1 understand, hut am tempted to reph’ "We are dealing with modern law." Law is a cultural matter. We live our culture, usuall\' without thinking. 1 w rite this in the confusion o\ er the election of a L.S. president in 2000. Is it sensible that a simple majority of \()tes in any state determines ahsoluteK' the number of electoral totes for that state, and that no attention is gi\en to the proportion of totes cast for each candidate.^; that as a result the popular tote may he outtveighed by the states' result.^: that the electoral college may change the totes of the states.^; that the balloting machines may be defectit e.^ All this is in issue now, but the defects hat e long been there, and hate gone largely unremarked, and certainly unaddressed. Lhe individual chapters, apart from the last, had their origins in lectures, and 1 hat e kept the ot erall structure. I sincerely regret that in chapter 1 1 git e a long text in Latin. 1 had no choice because my point is that a fundamental text has been mistranslated for many centuries. But 1 promise the reader that 1 do not do it again. My oterall thinking has been molded by experience in teaching as a tenured or visiting professor in lingland, Scotland, South .\frica, Italy, the Dutch .Antilles, and the United States of America. Mv prolonged sra\' in the U.S..\. has gi\ en me insights into the possibility of a ins comniu>n’. Yet 1 write as a committed citizen of the I'Airopean Union." 6 The Maastricht meeting entitled The Contribution of Mixed Legal Systems to European Private Law, was wide ranging, with contributions from Scotland, South Africa and the United States, notably Louisiana. 17
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