Prof. Berman wrote a comprehensive book about a forgotten historical topic. LAW AND REVOLUTION is precise explantion of the gradual developement of carefully crafted legal tradition during the Middle Ages beginning in the 11th century. Prof. Berman gives a solid background of family law, contractual law, criminal law, etc. Prof. Berman also gives a solid background of due process. He examination of the Catholic Church jurists' careful work is impressive. Prof. Berman explains who the Catholic Canon Law jurists tried to merge law with the Church's mission and sacramental system.

LAW AND REVOLUTION gives the Catholic Church's reasoning in attempting to bring what they thought was God's justice and mercy in line with legal norms. The attempt was to replace blood fueds, trial by combat, and trial by ordeal with a well ordered legal system that replaced vengence with justice. His citing of St. Anselm's (1035-1109) CUR DEUS HOMO as a partial explanation for the emergence of the Canon Law gives the reader insight for the Canon Law.

One example of the Canon jurists to merge the Catholic Church's sacraments with family law is their attempt to define marriage as both a sacrament and part of the law. The sacraments were suppose to be voluntary acts rather forced on individuals. This gradually led to the theory that arranged marriages were not binding. Another concern of the Catholic jurists was the legal definition of actions due to causa mortis(bacause of death). Prof. Berman uses this background to explain the Canon Law's reasoning regarding wills and estates.

The sections dealing with contractual law are informative. Prof. Berman explains the gradual change of the Catholic authorities on interest rates which were originally considere usury and a sin. Berman explains that the rapid economic changes beginning the in the tenth century led to a change in Canon Law. The Canon jurists ruled that interest rates were just compensation to the creditor due to the temporary loss of their money during the term of a loan. The legal term was "Pacta sunt servanda"(Contracts must be kept).

Prof. Berman's sections on criminal and civil law are useful. He explains the differnce between deliberate criminal acts and unintended negligence. Prof. Berman also explains the emergence of the differences between misdemeanors and felonies from the Catholic Church's definitions of venial and mortal sins. He cites Peter Abelard's dictum, "Nullum crimen, nulla poena, sine lege" (No crime, no punishement, without law). The Canon Law jurists were clear that unpopular acts were not necessarily crimes without a legal statute.

Prof. Berman's examination of Par Legum(by law or due process) demonstrates that the Catholic jurists were very concerned with legal rules and norms in legal cases. An example of this concern is the treatment of Rules of Evidence. This section shows that law was not arbitrary, and there were attempts to use "fair play" in legal proceedings.

Prof. Berman's LAW AND REVOLUTION undermines the politically correct gurus. This book gives the historical development of a carefull crafted legal system that is the basis of both Church Law and Constitutional Law. The Catholic authorities started Trial by Jury at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 which may have influenced English Common Law jurists. The politically correct gurus may be embarrassed to know that every time they make a legal claim in court, they are using a legal system that emerged in the history of Western Civiliation. Another reviewer suggested that this book would be useful in Western Civiliztion classes, European History classes, etc. This is a good suggestion. Every college student should be required to read this book. This is simply a well written book that is crucial in understanding a legal system that is a basis to civilized men who settle their disputes in courtrooms rather than in the streets.

Prof. Berman wrote a comprehensive book about a forgotten historical topic. LAW AND REVOLUTION is precise explantion of the gradual developement of carefully crafted legal tradition during the Middle Ages beginning in the 11th century. Prof. Berman gives a solid background of family law, contractual law, criminal law, etc. Prof. Berman also gives a solid background of due process. He examination of the Catholic Church jurists' careful work is impressive. Prof. Berman explains who the Catholic Canon Law jurists tried to merge law with the Church's mission and sacramental system.

LAW AND REVOLUTION gives the Catholic Church's reasoning in attempting to bring what they thought was God's justice and mercy in line with legal norms. The attempt was to replace blood fueds, trial by combat, and trial by ordeal with a well ordered legal system that replaced vengence with justice. His citing of St. Anselm's (1035-1109) CUR DEUS HOMO as a partial explanation for the emergence of the Canon Law gives the reader insight for the Canon Law.

One example of the Canon jurists to merge the Catholic Church's sacraments with family law is their attempt to define marriage as both a sacrament and part of the law. The sacraments were suppose to be voluntary acts rather forced on individuals. This gradually led to the theory that arranged marriages were not binding. Another concern of the Catholic jurists was the legal definition of actions due to causa mortis(bacause of death). Prof. Berman uses this background to explain the Canon Law's reasoning regarding wills and estates.

The sections dealing with contractual law are informative. Prof. Berman explains the gradual change of the Catholic authorities on interest rates which were originally considere usury and a sin. Berman explains that the rapid economic changes beginning the in the tenth century led to a change in Canon Law. The Canon jurists ruled that interest rates were just compensation to the creditor due to the temporary loss of their money during the term of a loan. The legal term was "Pacta sunt servanda"(Contracts must be kept).

Prof. Berman's sections on criminal and civil law are useful. He explains the differnce between deliberate criminal acts and unintended negligence. Prof. Berman also explains the emergence of the differences between misdemeanors and felonies from the Catholic Church's definitions of venial and mortal sins. He cites Peter Abelard's dictum, "Nullum crimen, nulla poena, sine lege" (No crime, no punishement, without law). The Canon Law jurists were clear that unpopular acts were not necessarily crimes without a legal statute.

Prof. Berman's examination of Par Legum(by law or due process) demonstrates that the Catholic jurists were very concerned with legal rules and norms in legal cases. An example of this concern is the treatment of Rules of Evidence. This section shows that law was not arbitrary, and there were attempts to use "fair play" in legal proceedings.

Prof. Berman's LAW AND REVOLUTION undermines the politically correct gurus. This book gives the historical development of a carefull crafted legal system that is the basis of both Church Law and Constitutional Law. The Catholic authorities started Trial by Jury at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 which may have influenced English Common Law jurists. The politically correct gurus may be embarrassed to know that every time they make a legal claim in court, they are using a legal system that emerged in the history of Western Civiliation. Another reviewer suggested that this book would be useful in Western Civiliztion classes, European History classes, etc. This is a good suggestion. Every college student should be required to read this book. This is simply a well written book that is crucial in understanding a legal system that is a basis to civilized men who settle their disputes in courtrooms rather than in the streets.

Prof. Berman wrote a comprehensive book about a forgotten historical topic. LAW AND REVOLUTION is precise explantion of the gradual developement of carefully crafted legal tradition during the Middle Ages beginning in the 11th century. Prof. Berman gives a solid background of family law, contractual law, criminal law, etc. Prof. Berman also gives a solid background of due process. He examination of the Catholic Church jurists' careful work is impressive. Prof. Berman explains who the Catholic Canon Law jurists tried to merge law with the Church's mission and sacramental system.

LAW AND REVOLUTION gives the Catholic Church's reasoning in attempting to bring what they thought was God's justice and mercy in line with legal norms. The attempt was to replace blood fueds, trial by combat, and trial by ordeal with a well ordered legal system that replaced vengence with justice. His citing of St. Anselm's (1035-1109) CUR DEUS HOMO as a partial explanation for the emergence of the Canon Law gives the reader insight for the Canon Law.

One example of the Canon jurists to merge the Catholic Church's sacraments with family law is their attempt to define marriage as both a sacrament and part of the law. The sacraments were suppose to be voluntary acts rather forced on individuals. This gradually led to the theory that arranged marriages were not binding. Another concern of the Catholic jurists was the legal definition of actions due to causa mortis(bacause of death). Prof. Berman uses this background to explain the Canon Law's reasoning regarding wills and estates.

The sections dealing with contractual law are informative. Prof. Berman explains the gradual change of the Catholic authorities on interest rates which were originally considere usury and a sin. Berman explains that the rapid economic changes beginning the in the tenth century led to a change in Canon Law. The Canon jurists ruled that interest rates were just compensation to the creditor due to the temporary loss of their money during the term of a loan. The legal term was "Pacta sunt servanda"(Contracts must be kept).

Prof. Berman's sections on criminal and civil law are useful. He explains the differnce between deliberate criminal acts and unintended negligence. Prof. Berman also explains the emergence of the differences between misdemeanors and felonies from the Catholic Church's definitions of venial and mortal sins. He cites Peter Abelard's dictum, "Nullum crimen, nulla poena, sine lege" (No crime, no punishement, without law). The Canon Law jurists were clear that unpopular acts were not necessarily crimes without a legal statute.

Prof. Berman's examination of Par Legum(by law or due process) demonstrates that the Catholic jurists were very concerned with legal rules and norms in legal cases. An example of this concern is the treatment of Rules of Evidence. This section shows that law was not arbitrary, and there were attempts to use "fair play" in legal proceedings.

Prof. Berman's LAW AND REVOLUTION undermines the politically correct gurus. This book gives the historical development of a carefull crafted legal system that is the basis of both Church Law and Constitutional Law. The Catholic authorities started Trial by Jury at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 which may have influenced English Common Law jurists. The politically correct gurus may be embarrassed to know that every time they make a legal claim in court, they are using a legal system that emerged in the history of Western Civiliation. Another reviewer suggested that this book would be useful in Western Civiliztion classes, European History classes, etc. This is a good suggestion. Every college student should be required to read this book. This is simply a well written book that is crucial in understanding a legal system that is a basis to civilized men who settle their disputes in courtrooms rather than in the streets.

This is a wonderful, wonderful book. I'm a law professor, but this book makes me wish I were a legal historian. I loved this book so much I taught a seminar where what we did mainly, was read this book. The only criticisms I have are that it is like one of those overwhelming meals where you cannot possibly ingest, let alone digest and appreciate, everything that is offered. The book is also an important corrective to the PC notion that the West is the source of all evil in the world. Instead you learn how deeply rooted are the ideas of individual freedom and dignity (not least, the dignity of women) in Western legal traditions, that can be traced ultimately to the complex interplay of Christian and Roman legal traditions. I teach at a (somewhat nominally) Catholic law school. I wish I could require all of our students to read this book before they graduate.

This is a wonderful, wonderful book. I'm a law professor, but this book makes me wish I were a legal historian. I loved this book so much I taught a seminar where what we did mainly, was read this book. The only criticisms I have are that it is like one of those overwhelming meals where you cannot possibly ingest, let alone digest and appreciate, everything that is offered. The book is also an important corrective to the PC notion that the West is the source of all evil in the world. Instead you learn how deeply rooted are the ideas of individual freedom and dignity (not least, the dignity of women) in Western legal traditions, that can be traced ultimately to the complex interplay of Christian and Roman legal traditions. I teach at a (somewhat nominally) Catholic law school. I wish I could require all of our students to read this book before they graduate.

I have barely finished the introduction section. Found quite a few ill-supported claims, especially when the author attempted to define certain terms such as 'feudal' and denounced all the ideologies of the nineteenth century as ignoring 'the deep roots of modern Western institutions and values...'.

The introduction smacks of subjectiveness and crude generalization, apparently the result of an effort to establish foundations for argument in later chapters.

At its core, the thesis of the book is this: that the origins of the western legal tradition can be traced to a "Papal Revolution" in the 11th and 12th centuries. The Papal Revolution, in essence, was an effort by scholars like Peter Abelard, Gratian, and Bracton, who applied an ancient Greek method of abstraction and analysis to the remnants of Roman law dating back to Justinian five or six centuries earlier. The Greek philosophers never gave much regard to the laws of their city-states, and the Romans wilfully avoided applying any level of abstraction to their laws, so when the 11th and 12th century scholars applied the Greek analytical method to the Roman law, something truly unique was born.

But that's only the beginning. Berman goes to great lengths to show that the "Papal Revolution", though it may not have taken place as abruptly as the other later revolutions in the western world, was no less an epochal event. The first half of the book traces how the canon law and papal power first separated itself from the secular law of the territorial kingdoms, and then asserted its own kind of jurisdiction. Although the level of detail sometimes distracts from Berman's main point, the organization of the chapters in Part I are careful to build up the story of how the need to gloss the old Roman texts led to a "science of law" in itself, and then to competing jurisdictions between emperor and pope, and how the development of the law led to the resolution of these conflicts. Part I ends with a short chapter on the personal conflict between King Henry II of England and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, which Berman proposes is the personification of the competing interests of the papacy and the secular authority.

Part II takes a different organizational approach in describing how the secular law developed at the same time. Rather than a chronological buildup, part II is a subject-matter survey of the different clusters of secular authority, and the body of law that bound them together. (For example, urban law of certain cities that got franchised to other towns and cities, mercantile law that was largely self-governed by the merchants, royal law that up until then had not developed in itself.)

Law students and lawyers will recognize some of the terminology that gets introduced as a part of the discussion, and it can provide some greater perspective on where and why these western legal concepts came from. But also, as emphasized in the introduction and conclusion, Berman proposes that the western tradition he describes is in a state of crisis. This book was published in 1984, at a time before Marxism's decline as living academic thought. In this light, the worries that legal history might be wrongfully described in only economic terms, or in terms of other historical "forces", may not be as pronounced. However, another concern -- that the western legal tradition is losing its structural integrity, or that the law is less and less founded upon a coherent foundation of reason -- still has relevance today. In that sense, the book is worth reading both for historical and for present-day purposes.

Berman's evidence and comprehensive detail is irrefutable. Heavy reading and may require exploration of other references. Even though he is not Catholic, he almost persuaded me to become one!

Berman's evidence and comprehensive detail is irrefutable. Heavy reading and may require exploration of other references. Even though he is not Catholic, he almost persuaded me to become one!

As an average US citizen without any legal training or education, I've always found the subject of law a bit overwhelming and intimidating to grasp. It is so primary in our "nation of laws" that law permeates almost every aspect of our lives. How does one even begin to get a handle on it? I asked a law professor if he had any recommendations, and he recommended "Law and Revolution", by Harold Berman. This book finally lifted the veil for me, on what law is in our society, and how it got that way. It portrays a huge panorama of the evolution of law from primitive trials by fire, to trials by church and by competing states, to our modern systems. I learned, for example, that one of the first and enduring reasons for criminal law is to prevent persons from retaliating in person against criminals. Back a thousand years ago, it was common for families to take revenge into their own hands, and the civil systems tried many ways to control this "need" to avenge, and modern criminal law grew out of those efforts. Another interesting learning was that the early church spent enormous efforts learning how to intellectually "reconcile" conflicting church dogmas, devising such techniques as "thesis, "anti-thesis" and "synthesis". Then, later, these highly refined intellectual skills were turned to the extremely complicated and confusing arena of law, and helped to gradually sort out and codify successful ways of acting civilized as a society. Ok, you get the idea. Just a few tidbits from this vast book. A wonderful reference for the average citizen who wants to understand the role of law in our lives. It stands as one of the top ten books I've ever read! Roger Matthews

As an average US citizen without any legal training or education, I've always found the subject of law a bit overwhelming and intimidating to grasp. It is so primary in our "nation of laws" that law permeates almost every aspect of our lives. How does one even begin to get a handle on it? I asked a law professor if he had any recommendations, and he recommended "Law and Revolution", by Harold Berman. This book finally lifted the veil for me, on what law is in our society, and how it got that way. It portrays a huge panorama of the evolution of law from primitive trials by fire, to trials by church and by competing states, to our modern systems. I learned, for example, that one of the first and enduring reasons for criminal law is to prevent persons from retaliating in person against criminals. Back a thousand years ago, it was common for families to take revenge into their own hands, and the civil systems tried many ways to control this "need" to avenge, and modern criminal law grew out of those efforts. Another interesting learning was that the early church spent enormous efforts learning how to intellectually "reconcile" conflicting church dogmas, devising such techniques as "thesis, "anti-thesis" and "synthesis". Then, later, these highly refined intellectual skills were turned to the extremely complicated and confusing arena of law, and helped to gradually sort out and codify successful ways of acting civilized as a society. Ok, you get the idea. Just a few tidbits from this vast book. A wonderful reference for the average citizen who wants to understand the role of law in our lives. It stands as one of the top ten books I've ever read! Roger Matthews

"Law and Revolution" is a tour de force and a lasting contribution to legal scholarship. Scholars fortunate enough to be familiar with Berman's earlier book, "The Nature and Functions of Law," will immediately recognize Berman's approach to law as a social institution; an approach that is firmly grounded in history and experience, but which also takes into consideration the realm of ideas. Berman's thesis is that the Western legal tradition was created by a series of social "revolutions," and that we are currently at the end of an era and experiencing a "revolution" that will transform our legal institutions. "Law and Revolution" is Berman's attempt to trace the development of our Western legal tradition in order to glean knowledge that will be useful to us in weathering the storm of the current "revolution" in our legal institutions. As Berman states, "So I have had to view the Western tradition of law and legality, of order and justice, in a very long historical perspective, from its beginnings, in order to find a way out of our present predicament." The result of Berman's approach is a long book-Berman simply could not achieve his purpose in a brief essay. Berman writes well, however, and he manages always to fascinate the reader. Berman's depth of thought is as beautiful as it is rare. This is a book to read, to ponder, and to re-read. It deserves a broad audience both inside and outside legal academia.

Law and Revolution is indespensible to understand how western civilization came about. Berman, in the exhaustive fashion of Gibbon, present an irrefutable case that Western Civilization is not a unqualified adoption of Rome or merely a footnote to Plato's Republic, but is uniquely a product of Christianity.

Berman's book covers a broad scope of the governing structures of the middle ages--making the period come alive. Rather than painting pictures of skullduggery, chivalry, and castles, Berman describes how the political and economic systems of the middle ages actually worked.

He details each jurisdiction: Urban law, Civil Law, Royal (common) Law, the Jus Gentium, Manorial Law, etc. It's quite impressive. I haven't read another like it yet.

If you want a real understanding of the Middle Ages, this is perhaps the most comprehensive book on the subject.