With this quotation we are back to the beginning of this section. Climatic conditions made rivers very different in character in Rome, Holland, South Africa, and Scotland. In Roman terms, some Roman rivers would be public, many private; almost no South African river would be public; very few Scottish rivers would be private. In South Africa the notion of public river was expanded. Still, what would surprise a non-lawyer - and perhaps should surprise a lawyer, too - is the enormous attention paid to Roman law in very changed circumstances, especially when that law itself was very unclear. Attention also focused in Scotland on old Scots authority where economic circumstances were different; and in South Africa on Roman-Dutch law where climatic conditions were different. The enormous need for legal authority for legal decisions and reasoning is unveiled.141 It is this need for legal authority that often lends strength to transplants (or apparent transplants). Here the rationale for appealing to Roman law is unclear since not only were the climatic conditions very different but the Roman law is unknowable. The authority of Roman law here is, above all, a throwback to the earlier period of the Reception in Scotland and Holland. When the local law was apparently non-existent, recourse was had to Rome. But the usage is decidedly peculiar here. All I can say is that the approach indicates the immense need for authority in law. Third, and lastly, the U.S.A. I will discuss two very disparate issues: the Rule against Perpetuities in property law; and aspects of the separation of church and state. 141 But it should be emphasized that modern economic circumstances were stressed in Wills’ Trustees, also in Lord Dilhorne’s dissent. 140 At p. 210. practically without navigable rivers, is covered with a network of public streams, the majority of quite small size.140
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