MILITARY LAW — A STUDY IN COMPARATIVE LAW 369 such changes and modifications as experience had shown to be necessary. It thus became the Uving voice of civil law. This edict with the commentaries which were written upon it, was one of the growing points of the Roman law. By the specific provisions of the Articles of War the President has power to make regulations which he may modify from time to time in which he may prescribe the procedure including modes of proof in cases before courts-martial, courts of inquiry, mili- tary commissions, and other military tribunals. Such regulations must not be contrary to the Articles of War or inconsistent with them, and they must be laid before Congress annually .^^ By virtue of this power the President has declared much of the mili- is, in its content, only the expression of the will of the senate and the Emperor; while in form, it still remains the edict, that is to say, the law which proceeds from the office of the magistrate. But even under these conditions it is formally the praetor and not the senate who promises actions, exceptions, etc. " From this edict, the content of which has now been fixed, and which in this sense is the perpetuum edictum, of Hadrian, there has been borrowed that which we now find in Justinian's codification as the edict. The newest and best attempt to restore the edict is that by Lenel: The Edictum Perpetuum, 1883, ed. II, 1907 (Bruns. 211 et seq.)" CzYHLARZ, Institutionen des Romischen Rechtes, § 8. See also Muirhead, His- torical Introduction to the Private Law of Rome, 2 ed., Pt. III. Chap. II, § 49, pp. 238-42. Melville, Manual of the Principles of Roman Law, Pt. I, Chap. I, § s, p. 24 et seq. Walton, Historical Introduction to Roman Law, 2 ed., Chap. XXII. Salkowski, Institutes and History of Roman Private Law (Whitfield's translation), Introduction, Pt. II, § 7, pp. 34-36. Sohm, Institutes of Roman Law (Ledlie's translation), 3 ed., Pt. I, Chap. II, § 15, p. 73 et seq. Kuhlenbeck, Ent- wiCKLUNGSGESCHiCHTE DES RoMiscHEN Rechts, Bk. II, Chap. Ill, § 3, p. 219 et seq. GiRARD, Short History of Roman Law (translated by Lefroy and Cameron), Chap. II, § II, 2 (II), p. 80 et seq. Leage, Roman Private Law, ii et seq. 2 Cuq, Les In- stitutions JuRiDiQUES des Romains, Bk. I, Chap. II (V), p. 31 et seq. Esmarch, Romische Rechtsgeschichte, 3 ed., Bk. II, Chap. IV, §§ 93 et seq. Voigt, Ro- mische Rechtsgeschichte, § 19. For the revision and consolidation of the per- petual edict imder Hadrian, see also Muirhead, Historical Introduction to the Private Law of Rome, 2 ed., Pt, IV, Chap. I, § 58, pp. 289-91. Salkowski, Insti- tutes and History of Roman Private Law (Whitfield's translation), Introduction, Pt. II,§ 8, IV, p. 45. Kuhlenbeck, Entwicklungsgeschichte des Romischen Rechts, Bk. Ill, Chap. I, § I, C, p. 293. Voigt, Romische Rechtsgeschichte, § 84.
- ' Manual for Courts-Martial [U. S. Army] (corrected to April 15, 191 7),
paragraphs 198, 199; Thirth-eighth Article of War (Rev. Stat. U. S., § 1342). If the growing movement to confer upon the courts ample power over pleading, practice and procedure; and to reduce legislation on these points to the minimum, succeeds, our courts will have some resemblance to the praetor's court when he de- termined the formula which was submitted to the judex. The early common-law judges, before the day when their practice had stiffened by precedent, exercised a similar power, as Holdsworth sees it. See W. S. Holdsworth, "The Year Books," 22 L. Quart. Rev. 360, 369.
