To be sure, what Savigny has in mind seems to be a codification of all the existing law, not just a particular part of it. Ibid., 33. But his objection would seem to apply as much and as little to the one case as to the other.
THE SCHOLARS and prelates who accomplished the vast intellectual articulation of the canon law during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries brought to their task a highly developed set of value commitments but only a meager supply of administrative resources. This unique combination of constituent elements gives the system they producedin addition to its intrinsic historical interesta special claim to the attention of students of legal theory. In this essay, I shall attempt to give some account of the basic character and typical problem-solving techniques of this system, in the hope of shedding some light both on certain aspects of the history of the medieval Church and on certain perennial problems of legal theory. * I wish to express my thanks to the Ford Foundation for the grant that made possible the work of which this article is a part. 1. See ERIC W. KEMP, AN INTRODUCTION TO CANON LAW IN THE CHURCH OF ENG-LAND 11-32 (London, 1957). BISHOPS' COMMISSION ON CANON LAW... 21-2 (London, 1947). See CHARLES MUNIER, LEs SOURCES PATRISTIQUES DU DROIT DE L']OLISE (Mulhouse, 1957) for a careful and instructive analysis of one form of theological input into the system.
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