The Enchantment of Codification in the Common-Law World Gunther A. Weisst INTRODUCION: THE NEED To EXPLORE THE ROLE OF CODIFICATION IN THE COMMON-LAW WORLD ................................................................................................. ............................. 437 A. Implicationsfor Macro-Comparison.............................................................................. 438 1. Simple Distinction Thesis.................................................................................... 439 2. SophisticatedDistinction Thesis ......................................................................... 440 3. Convergence Thesis ............................................................................................440 4. Equation Thesis ................................................................................................... 441 5. Reversal Thesis ................................................................................................... 441 6. Evaluation........................................................................................................... 442 B. Implicationsfor European Codification......................................................................... 442 1. The Substance of European Codification ........................................................... 443 2. The Form of European Codification................................................................... 444 3. The HistoricalArgumentAgainst European Codification................................. 446 C. Summary ......................................................................................................................... 448 ]H. CODIFICATION ON THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT ........................................................................... 448 A. The Intellectual,Political, and Legal Environmentof Codificationon the European Continent in Modern History .......................................................................................... 451 1. The Manifestationsof the Idea of Codification: The Modern Codes.................. 453 B. The Core Featuresof ContinentalEuropean Codification............................................ 454 1 A.. .L.--,.. Atce I1. AtUM l///y ............................................................................................................. .DO 2. Completeness ...................................................................................................... 456 a. Exclusiveness .......................................................................................... 456 b. The Absence of Gaps............................................................................... 458 c. Comprehensiveness................................................................................. 462 3. System ................................................................................................................. 463 4. Reform ................................................................................................................. 466 5. NationalLegal Unification ................................................................................. 467 6. Simplicity ........................................................................................................... 468 C. Summaary ......................................................................................................................... 469 I. CODIFICATION IN ENGLISH LEGAL HISTORY ................................................................................ 470 A. From the Beginnings to Jeremy Bentham ....................................................................... 470 1. The Idea of a Code in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries......................... 471 t LL.M., Yale Law School, 1999; Attomey-at-Law, New York, Germany, and Czech Republic, 2000. 1 would like to thank Professor John H. Langbein of Yale Law School for his invaluable guidance. I am also very grateful to John Houlihan and Andr6 Namphy of The Yale Journal of InternationalLaw for the enormous amount of editorial work they did, as well as to Tracy MacDonald and Jonathan Fine for their stylistic assistance. Special thanks to Professor Claus-Wilhelm Canaris of Munich, Professor Mario G. Losano of Milan, Professor Josef Drexl of Munich, Professor Marilyn Drees of Yale Law School, Davis Polk & Wardwell, and last, but not least, the German National Merit Foundation for supporting me in many respects. I dedicate this article to Petr Nosek. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are by the Author. THE YALE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW [Vol. 25:435 2. The Retreat of the Idea of a Code in the Eighteenth Century: Blackstone 's Commentaries..................................................................................................... 474 B. Jeremy Bentham and the English CodificationMovement in the Nineteenth Century............................................................................................................................ 475 1. Codification in Theory: Bentham, Austin, and Beyond ...................................... 475 a. Jeremy Bentham and Codification.......................................................... 476 b. John Austin and Codification ................................................................. 480 2. The Transitionfrom Theory to Practice:Codification and the Rise of the Treatises.............................................................................................................. 482 3. Codificationin Practice:British India and England......................................... 483 a. Achievements in Practice1. Trying Codificationin British India .......... 484 b. Achievements in Practice1I: FurtherAttempts in England.................... 486 4. Evaluation of the Nineteenth-CenturyCodification Movement.......................... 488 a. Sheldon Amos's Works on Codification.................................................. 489 b. The Twentieth-CenturyPerception of Nineteenth-Century CodificationEfforts ................................................................................. 490 C. FurtherReasonsfor England's Hostility to Codification....................... 492 C. The Idea of Codification in Twentieth-CenturyEngland ............................................... 493 D. Summary ......................................................................................................................... 497 IV. CODIFICATION INAMERICAN LEGAL HISTORY ............................................................................ 498 A. The BeginningsofAmerican Codification...................................................................... 498 1. The Early ColonialCodes ................................................................................... 498 a. Beginning with Codes ............................................................................. 498 b. The Growing Dissatisfactionwith the Law ............................................. 499 2. The Exceptional Case: EdwardLivingston and Codificationin Louisiana ....... 499 3. The Early Callsfor Codification in America ...................................................... 501 4. The Movement GainsMomentum: South Carolinaand the EarlyJacksonian Period................................................................................................................. 502 B. The Peakof the CodificationMovement and the American Civil Codes........................ 503 1. DavidDudley Field-His Concept of Codificationand His Codes.................... 503 a. Field's Concept of Codification.............................................................. 504 b. Field's Code of (Civil) Procedure.......................................................... 505 0. The Heart of the Reform: The Civil Code ............................................... 506 2. The Strugglefor the Civil Code in New York: Field Versus Carter................... 507 a. The Failureof the Civil Code ................................................................. 508 b. The Pros and Cons of Codificationin New York .................................... 509 C. For Codification ..................................................................................... 509 d. Against Codification ............................................................................... 509 3. The Civil Codes in Georgia,Montana, California,and the Dakotas in the Nineteenth Century ............................................................................................. 511 a. Georgia ................................................................................................... 511 b. North and South Dakota ......................................................................... 512 C. California................................................................................................ 512 d. Montana .................................................................................................. 513 e. Why the West? ......................................................................................... 513 4. Evaluationof the Nineteenth-Century CodificationMovement .......................... 514 C. Codificationin Twentieth-CenturyAmerica-An Idea Comes to the Fore? .................. 515 1. The Fate ofthe Nineteenth-CenturyAmerican Civil Codes-Evidence Against Codification?......................................................................................... 515 2. From the Restatements to the Uniform Commercial Code-Evidencefor Codification?..................................................................................................