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The New Reprint of St. Germain's Doctor and Student and Its Value in the Modern World (The Doctor and Student by Christopher St Touro Law Review Volume 15 Number 2 Article 24 1999 Take Two Tablets and See Me in the Morning: the New Reprint Of St. Germain's Doctor and Student and Its Value in the Modern World (The Doctor and Student by Christopher St. Germain) Mark H. Snyder Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Snyder, Mark H. (1999) "Take Two Tablets and See Me in the Morning: the New Reprint Of St. Germain's Doctor and Student and Its Value in the Modern World (The Doctor and Student by Christopher St. Germain)," Touro Law Review: Vol. 15 : No. 2 , Article 24. Available at: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview/vol15/iss2/24 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Touro Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Snyder: Doctor And Student BOOK REVIEW TAKE TWO TABLETS AND SEE ME IN THE MORNING: THE NEW REPRINT OF ST. GERMAIN'S DOCTOR AND STUDENT AND ITS VALUE IN THE MODERN WORLD The Doctor and Student By ChristopherSt. Germain Mark H. Snyder* Nearly every case upon which we rely contains within it authority for its basic legal principles. If one researches those authorities, one will find even older authorities for those principles, and so on. Where does it all begin? Is there a chain of unbroken authority reaching back to the Magna Carta,' Roman responsa,2 or even the Bible? * Mark Snyder is Principal Court Attorney to the Hon. John N. Byrne in Supreme Court, Bronx County, a position to which he was appointed in 1982. In addition to his duties at Supreme Court, Mark serves as a part time adjunct law instructor at Marymount Manhattan College School of Continuing Education and as a Small Claims Court arbitrator. He has also served as a part time administrative law judge for the New York City Department of Transportation and Environmental Control Board, presiding over some 20,000 administrative hearings. He was a contributing author to the three volume treatise Proving Criminal Defenses and has written or co-authored numerous articles and book reviews for the New York Law Journal. He received his JD from New York University School of Law in 1977 and holds a Master of Arts Degree from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and an AB cum laude from the Syracuse University Honors Program. This past year, he ran for the New York State Assembly from Manhattan's Upper East Side and has previously run for Supreme and Civil Court in Manhattan, having received the "approved" rating of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York in all his judicial races. He is active in local New York City affairs as a member of Community Board 8 and as a director of the Gracie Point Neighbors Association. His interest in common law literature developed while a law student and over the years, he has accumulated one of the finest private common law libraries in America. Magna Carta (also spelled Magna Charta), the statutory background of common law jurisprudence, was signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215. Comprised of a preamble and 63 clauses, the document essentially protects the 843 Published by Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center, 1999 1 Touro Law Review, Vol. 15 [1999], No. 2, Art. 24 TOUROLAWREVIEW [Vol 15 If one researches authority all the way back, one uncovers a series of original authorities which may rightly be called the pillars of modem law. These original authorities are not usually seminal case law, but are for the most part legal treatises, which can often be found in the dusty back rooms of modern law libraries. Of these authorities, several stand out as premier in that they are cited most often for the greatest variety of principles. Among them, in order of importance, are: The Institutes of the Laws of England, by Edward Coke (pronounced "cook"); 3 Justinian's landed rights of the gentry from being usurped by the king's prerogative powers. King John repudiated the document and was forced to reinstate it under the name Great Charter in 1225. Altogether, its principles were restated and republished approximately seven times through various reigns. An excellent modem edition of Magna Carta has been produced by the Legal Classics Library in 1982 from an 1829 London edition edited by Richard Thompson. See also W. MCKECHNIE, MAGNA CARTA - A COMMENTARY ON THE GREAT CHARTER OF KING JOHN 375-95 (2d rev. ed. 1914); W. DURANT, THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION IV - THE AGE OF FAITH 672-78. (1950); George Anastaplo, Individualism, Professional Ethics, and the Sense of Community: From Runnymede to a London Telephone Booth, 28 LOY. U. CHI. L.J. 285, 286 (1996). 2 Roman responsa represents a mature development in a system of law. Responsa are written answers to questions seeking to determine the modem applicability of legal interpretations of long-standing statutes. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein's scholarship is a modem example in the category of responsa. See also WOLFGANG KUNKEL, AN INTRODUCTION TO ROMAN LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY 96, 107, 116, 118, 121, 122, 146 (J.M. Kelly trans., Oxford at the Clarendon Press 2d ed. 1973) (1972). 3 SIR EDWARD COKE, THE INSTITUTES OF THE LAWS OF ENGLAND (1630). In addition to being Chief Justice of England, Edward Coke (1552-1634) was Queen's Attorney in the prosecutions of the Earl of Essex and of William Raleigh leading to their ultimate executions for treason. He was also instrumental in the Parliamentary process that led to the overthrow of Charles I. These trials and Parliamentary proceedings may be found in HOWELL'S STATE TRIALS (21 vols., London, 1816), vols. 1-3. Coke also wrote one of the earliest and most esteemed reporter series known as COKE'S REPORTS (cited as Co. Rep.), which ran 13 volumes. Garland Press published a reprint of the 1832 edition of Coke in 1979. The Legal Classics Library produced a reprint edition of Coke in the 1980's. For an excellent biography of Coke,see CATHERINE DRINKER BOWEN, THE LION AND THE THRONE (1956). The biography won the National Book Award. For a general overview of common https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview/vol15/iss2/24 2 Snyder: Doctor And Student 1999 DOCTOR AND STUDENT Corpus Juris Civilis;4 and Matthew Hale's History of the Pleas of the Crown.5 Both Coke and Hale were Chief Justices of England, Coke in the early part of the 17th Century, Hale in the latter part. Justinian was Emperor of Rome after the fall of Rome who ordered a compilation of all the laws from the time of the City's founding in order that its rules not be lost to posterity. Coke's work is divided into four parts: Coke Upon Littleton (or Coke's Institutes Vols. I and 11); the Statutes; the Pleas of the Crown; and Jurisdiction. Of these, Coke Upon Littleton and the Pleas of the Crown are the most significant. Coke Upon Littleton is a commentary on Littleton's Tenures,6 a thorough and law literature, see 1-2 FREDERICK POLLOCK AND FREDERIC WILLIAM MAITLAND, THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LAW (Legal Classics Library, 1982 Reprint Edition); HENRY SUMNER MAINE, ANCIENT LAW, (Legal Classics Library 1982 Reprint Edition); THEODORE F.T. PLUCKNETT, A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE COMMON LAw (5th ed. 1956). See also DAVID M. WALKER, THE OXFORD COMPANION TO LAW, (Oxford 1980) (providing biographies of the legal figures cited herein). 4 Justinian (483-565) was Emperor of Rome from 527 until his death. There are very few available English editions of the entire CORPUS JURIS CIVILS. However, both the Institutes and the Digest have recently been republished in Latin and English: JUSTINIAN'S INSTITUTES (Peter Birks and Grant McLeod, trans., Duckworth 1987); and THE DIGEST OF JUSTINIAN (4 vols.) (Theodor Mommsen, Paul Krueger and Alan Watson, eds., U. Penn. 1985). See also TONY HONORt, TRmONiAN (Duckworth 1978). Tribonian (470-543) was the jurist who is credited with compiling much of the CORPUS JURIS. The reader is also referred to the work of Robert Joseph Pothier (1699-1772) whose work on the Civil Law was crucial towards the creation of the Code Napoleon. Pothier is the most lucid author ever to write a secular legal treatise. See also, CUPIDAE LEGUM JuvENTUTI: THE ELEMENTS OF ROMAN LAW wrrNH A TRANSLATION OF THE INSTITUTES OF JUSTINIAN (R.W. Lee, trans., 1956). ' Matthew Hale (1609-1676) demonstrated his unique professional integrity by maintaining his judicial career from the reign of Charles I through the Interregnum and then rising to Chief Justice during the Restoration. An excellent republication of his work can be found in the Classic English Text Series, edited by P.R. Glazebrook, and published by Professional Books, London, 1971. For an overview of the development of the common law,see Harold J. Berman, The Origins of HistoricalJurisprudence: Coke, Selden. Hale, 103 YALE L.J. 1651 (May 1994). 6 SIR THOMAS LrITLETON, THE TENURES (Garland Press 1978) (1841). Sir Thomas Littleton (1402-81) was a judge of the common pleas whose great book, THE TENURES, is considered to be the first printed English legal treatise. Published by Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center, 1999 3 Touro Law Review, Vol. 15 [1999], No. 2, Art. 24 846 TOURO LA WREVIEW [Vol 15 masterful elucidation of English property law dating from the late 15th Century. Littleton wrote in Law French, a courtly and genteel language highly compatible with English.
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