Law requires authority. This need frequently bends law out of shape. Law is wanted, say needed, by a judge. But there is no authority. The judge cannot say: “This is my judgment because I like it!” So the judge borrows from an approved system such as Roman law. But what if there is no law there, or it cannot be discovered? Then the judge is tempted -- or even compelled -- to invent it. A favorite approach throughout history has been to tear texts out of their context and The Failure of Scottish Legal Education in the th Century, and the American Civil War.* I * The text of a lecture delivered at Washington and Lee University, School of Law, in February 2002. The ideas in a very different format go back to Alan Watson, Joseph Story and the Conflict of Laws: A Case Study in Conflict of Laws (Athens, GA, 1992). LECTURE 7
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=