Legal history helps us to understand modern law. This book contains the text on which Professor Zimmermann's October 1999 Clarendon lectures at the University of Oxford were based. The lectures combine legal analysis, legal historiography, and reflections on both contemporary and future legal developments throughout Europe.

• Introduction


• 1: The End of an Era: Transformation of Scholarship in Roman Law


• 2: The Transition from Civil Law to Civil Code in Germany: Dawn of a New Era


• 3: A Change in perspective: European Private Law and its Historical Foundations


• Final Observations


• Index

Reinhard Zimmermann is Professor of Law at the University of Regensburg