The Roman Law of To-day
Is it any satisfaction to my wounded feeling of legal right when, from all these persons, I obtain, after a long struggle, only what belonged to me from the beginning? But, even leaving this desire for satisfaction out of consideration, a desire which I do not hesitate to acknowledge to be entirely justifiable, what a disturbance of the natural equilibrium between the parties! The danger with which a bad issue of the suit threatens them consists for the one in the loss of his property, and for the other in the restitution of what he unjustly retained. In the opposite case, the one has the advantage that he loses nothing, and the other that he has added to his wealth at the expense of his adversary. Is not this to provoke the most shameless of lying, and to put a premium on unfaithfulness? But I have thus, in fact, done no more than characterize our law. I shall have an opportunity later to prove this opinion; but I believe that it will be easier to do this, if, for the sake of contrast, I refer to the attitude which the Roman law assumed towards this question.
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