EVALUATION

59 Respect for the law, and the tireless efforts of various social groups and individuals in developing it, stand out when the old law is considered as a whole. Yet all these efforts were neither coordi­nated nor directed by a central authority.

^,S≡ Cf. H. Coing, â€?Zum Einfluss der Philosophie des Aristoteles auf die Entwicklung des r∂mischen Rechts^,, ^eitschτiftderSavigny-Stiftungfur Rechtsgeschichte (R. A.) 69 (1952), 24-59; G. Otte, â€?Die Aristotelzitate in der Glosse^,, Zeitschrift der Samgny-Stiftungfiir Rechtsgeschichte (R.A.) 85 (1968), 368-93; G. Otte, Dialektik und Jurisprudenz. Untersuchungen zur Methode der Glossatoren (Frankfurt, 1971; Ius commune Sonderhefte, ι). follow. In the early Middle Ages the law was simple, because traditional customs dominated all legal relations. In the Enlighten­ment, the desire to simplify the law manifested itself in a policy of national codifications, which aimed at a uniform law set out in a clear text, certain for all. In the period we have just examined there was no true European law, although a European jurisprudence reduced the disparity between local customs and ordinances. Nor were there national codes or even (except in England) national legal systems; the position of national law, between local custom and cosmopolitan common law, was obscure and somewhat uncertain. No single legal system had a monopoly; the law was characterized by pluralism and eclecticism. Lawyers willingly drew principles and concepts from different sources of law: Roman law, canon law, custom, royal or municipal legislation, the law of the country or foreign law. Upheavals in different areas and countries led to a proliferation of authoritative sources (or so it seems to modern eyes accustomed to national legislation and a central system of justice). From modern times this proliferation was criticized; and in the eighteenth century, the tendency was reversed. In place of the old law, which was the result of organic development, the reformers advocated the introduction of codes. They were conceived as instruments of modernization and social and economic policy, and were intended to ensure clarity and legal certainty.