The growth of civil law

Abstract

"THERE is nothing new under the sun", declared wise Solomon. The truth of this dictum can be tested by its application to the various things and institutions that man has contrived to invent. There is a sort of 'continuum' going on around us - a 'continuum' taking place not only in the realm of beings that go to form the Creator's Universe, but also in the realm of things which, taken together, make up our homes, our cities, our nations, our world. In conformity with his nature, man follows the line of least effort so that he finds it more easy to improve that which already exists than to invent new things. To any one who cares to go to the bottom of things, a marked similarity exists between Past and Present, not only as regards the way of life and the relations amongst human beings, but also with respect, to objects, institutions and systems which men make use of. To illustrate what we mean by an example which immediately leads to the theme of this brief composition, the legal institutions obtaining in our clays are no more than an evolution - at times a repetition - of old ones. Our laws on Usufruct, on Emphyteusis and Consortium for instance, bear a strong resemblance to those of Roman Law. The similarity between past and present institutions is not always as pronounced as in the cases abovementioned for the simple reason that Law is not static - that it is an organism which is continually growing.