1 Comment

Michael PS
June 4th, 2012 | 1:06 pm

The review of Prof Balkin’s book put me in mind of some remarks of Protalis, one of the commissioners responsible for the Code Napoléon of 1804

“A host of things are necessarily left to usage, to the discussion of men learned in the law, to the decision of judges….The function of statutory law is to fix, in broad lines, the general maxims of the law, to establish principles that will be fecund in consequences, and not to descend to the details of questions that may arise in each subject. It is for the judge and the jurist, imbued with the general spirit of the laws, to direct their applications.”

Portalis was from the pays de droit écrit (the country of the written, i.e. Roman law) and his approach is typical of the Civilian tradition.