Wolf applied historical criticism to the study of philology, at a time also when the stirring uprising against Napoleon and French domination had reawakened the self-consciousness of the European nations and had given them a new interest in the traditions of their past. What Savigny and others accomplished in Germany was done for the English-speaking world by the Analytic School of Jurisprudence, whose chief representatives are Bentham and Austin. These jurists returned to the system of Hobbes, maintaining that sovereignty is unlimited, and bringing the theory of natural rights into discredit. Until quite recently Austin's views were scarcely questioned and his influence in England and America has been hardly short of the marvellous. The theory of Natural Rights, which was such a potent factor in bringing about modern liberty, lost its hold upon the minds of men just at the time it had won its greatest triumphs. We are living in an age of democracy, but we are experiencing that democracy and liberty are not synonymous terms and that Demos may become a greater despot than any individual ruler. Demos seems to be rapidly becoming the Leviathan which is swallowing up all power. The liberty of the individual is being more and more restrained. Governmental interference is on the increase. The frequency with which injunctions are issued is becoming a most dangerous menace to individual liberty. The great aggregation of wealth in the hands of a few individuals has made these great capitalists masters over the destinies of millions, who are dependent upon them to a larger degree than the subjects of any despot are upon their ruler. We have discarded many of the principles which were once supposed to form the very corner-stone of our republic. We have violated the principle that government is based upon the consent of the governed by subjugating the Philippines. We have inflicted greater sufferings upon the Filipinos than England was inflicting upon the colonists when they threw off the hated yoke. Again, the heroic struggle of the Boers for liberty awakened far less interest among the nations than did the revolt of the American colonists or the partitions of Poland over a century ago. Power and wealth, rather than liberty, has become the ideal of the nations, the United States among the rest. The theory of Natural Rights is an exploded theory, no longer believed in by any scholar of note. There can, however, be no doubt concerning the fact that this conception, considering the consequences it has had upon historical development, has been one of the most important notions in the history of human thought. The world would have been very different but for the influence of this idea. The following are some of the most important of its consequences: 1. Its influence upon Roman Law was very marked.\ The Roman jurists regarded Natural Law as a model system of perfect laws founded in Reason, to which positive laws should as far as possible be made to con form. Natural Law was thus conducive in rendering Roman Law more just, simple, and universal than it would otherwise have been, and was one of the chief reasons for the excellence of Roman Law.1 "The historical significance of Roman Law consists above all in the fact that it developed the abstract conception of subjective law, that is, of the general and equal right of the individual in private law. Therein lies what is 1 Maine, Ancient Law, pp. 76, 77. called the universal character of Roman Law. This does not mean that Roman Law is the eternal and absolute law for all peoples and ages, or even that a single one of the modern nations can rest satisfied with it, but that an essential and general element of law, which must exist in every system and must in a sense form its foundation, is therein developed in a manner and perfection that it contains the theoretical and practically applicable model for all times and nations." 1 The French lawyers, too, were ardent students of Natural Law. They regarded it as the panacea for the multitudinous and conflicting laws of their own country, varying as they did with each province and municipality.2 3 The doctrine of Natural Law also influenced the legislation of Frederick the Great and the formation of the Prussian Landrecht, as well as that of the Austrian Civil Code. The latter authorizes judges in cases where positive laws are inapplicable, to decide according to the "natural principles of law." Likewise, the commissioners who prepared a code for India, recommend that in cases not foreseen by law the judges decide "in the manner they deem most consistent with the principles of justice, equity, and good conscience." " 2. Natural law more than any other factor was operative in destroying the exclusive spirit which the Romans possessed and in generating the conception of a society of all human beings (societas hominum).5 It is only after Stoic philosophy was introduced into 1 Bruns, in Holtzendorff, Encycl. d. Rechtswiss., p. 81. 2 Maine, Ancient Law. 3 Trendelenburg, Naturrecht, p. 3. Holland, Jurisprudence, p. 35. 4 5 Voigt, Die Lehre vom Jus Naturale der Römer, I. 4 Rome, and the Romans adopted the Stoic conceptions | of Natural Law and the equality of men, that the change from exclusiveness to cosmopolitanism took place a change which was of immense influence on subsequent history. This helped to enable the Romans to form that wonderful system of world-empire which was never paralleled except by the English system of our own time. Greeks and Persians regarded conquered peoples as inferior barbarians. "The importance and mission of Rome," says Jhering, "from the standpoint of universal history, expressed in a word, is the victory of the idea of universality over the principle of nationality." 1 The Roman idea of universal empire dominated the entire history of the Middle Ages in Church and State. 3. Modern international law was by its founder, Grotius, built upon the principles of Natural Law, which are founded in reason and conscience.2 4. Natural Law has exerted great influence on private law, not only in systematizing it, but also in developing its content, because it concerned itself with the individual and the necessities of his nature. In opposition to the force of custom it ever emphasized the truths of justice, equity, and morals.3 5. The principles of Natural Law have exerted their greatest and crowning effect since the last quarter of the eighteenth century. They have transformed the structure of society and of the State by emphasizing the importance of individual liberty. The democratic spirit, which distinguishes the present era, is in no small 1 Geist d. röm. Rechts, I. 1. "Franck, Réformateurs et publicistes, 17ième siècle, 320; Bryce, Studies in History and Jurisprudence, 1901, Vol. II. pp. 167–69. 3 Bryce, op. cit., I. pp. 164-67. degree the consequence of these principles. The Declaration of the Rights of Man, which is their classical expression, became the gospel of the masses. Goethe beautifully expresses in his Hermann u. Dorothea the feeling with which these ideas were received by the downtrodden classes of Europe: "Denn wer läugnet es wohl, dass hoch sich das Herz ihm erhoben, Ihm die freiere Brust mit edleren Pulsen geschlagen, Als man hörte vom Rechte der Menschen das Allen gemein ei, Das der Müssiggang und der Eigennutz in der Hand hielt.” |