European Law Past Future Unity Diversity Over Two Millennia R. C.… 9780521809382

European Law in the Past and the FutureUnity and Diversity over Two Millennia\nAuthor(s): R. C. van Caenegem\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521809382, 978-0521809382\nSynopsis\nAs Europe moves towards economic and political unification, many wonder why legal unification makes so little headway. In this concise but wide-ranging book, R. C. van Caenegem considers the historical reasons behind this legal diversity. He stresses the importance of the adoption on the Continent - but not in England - of the classical law of the Romans, and shows how the rise of the nation states led to a multitude of national codes of law. The impact of politics on legal development is another key factor, and as a graphic example van Caenegem provides a detailed account of how the German past was extolled in Nazi Germany. The book concludes with a consideration of the ongoing debate on the desirability - indeed, on .