appears with three meanings: (i) law found among all mankind; (0 international law (a sense almost ignored hv the Roman jurists); (];) that part of a legal system that is not restricted to citizens, 'hhe first meaning is legally meaningless. I'ourth, drafting ma\’ he had, a subject to which I will return later in the hook. Here 1 would emphasize that to understand a legal te.\t one must e.xamine its pro\ enance: the circumstances in which it was drafted; the responses in it to the foreign societ\’ on which it ma\' rely.' I'ifth, because of language difficulties a \ ital and much studied te.vt may he misunderstood for centuries. Si.xth, absurdities in a highly regarded source may lit e on. d'hey may be reinterpreted, but perhaps not abandoned. Subsequent commentators on the Institutes not simpK' ignore the present discussion. The texts determined some t)f the scope of ins naturah' and ins gentiumwith social consequences. 'Fhese opening texts have still an impact today, even if only indirectly, and this will increase with a common law for Kurope. 'The issue is the importance to be attached to a law froma different )urisdiction. I would like to present the issue fromccvmmon law jurisdictions. Let us imagine a ca)urt in the L.S. state of Cieorgia faced w ith an issue for which there is no relevant statute or judicial precedent. Naturally the judges look at the law from other states, let us say South Chirolina. But what they will consider is only case law, never stature. \\ hv ? 1 hav e often asked my students and ev en colleagues, and they have no answer. It cannot be that somehow judges in South C'arolina are more in touch with the needs of Cieorgia than are South Carolinian legislators. I'he answer lies in the justinianic texts we have looked at, and in their hisnvrv. From the confusion of the Institute.^ texts later commentators drew the following conclusions: 37 A prime example is the French civil code's articles on delict. 40
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