separate contract in French law is not readily and rationally explicable.6 In addition, Arntz points out the inconsistencies in the articles on mandat, and these he reasonably attributes to disagreements during the drafting of the articles. Yet here there is again irony. An issue for the draftsmen was whether there could be a tacit mandate, and the resolution was affirmative. Arntz notes the difficulties arising from the debates. But he gives as his first and prime example: “The married woman has a tacit mandate from the husband for the expenses of the household.”7 But it does not seem possible to see here within the marriage a specific contract of mandate. If she fails to buy necessary goods, how can the husband sue on the bilateral contract of mandate? For Lecture I remain with the Byzantine Emperor Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis. It is, after all, the most authoritative legal work the western world has known, and at the same time is itself in very large measure a massive transplant from classical Roman law. The whole enterprise and its success are extremely surprising. Justinian began with making a collection of rulings of the Emperors. This is not surprising in itself since there were precedents, and for long such rulings had been virtually the only source of new law. This Code was published in April . In December Justinian ordered the compilation of a collection of Roman juristic texts, theDigest. Thus, the Code and the Digest were not thought of as a unit. Roman jurists had stopped writing books around A.D., so the Digest contains virtually no texts after that date. It is usually said that Justinian’s instructions to the compilers included making substantive changes to bring the law up to date. This is a misunderstanding, probably due to the fact that Justinian’s bizarre method of legislation is almost beyond 6 Except perhaps as a strange reminiscence of the Roman concept of artes liberales? Some professional services are so noble that they should not be regarded as hire. 7 Cours, 4, p. 153
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