Latest Items

Item 22

Lloyd Duhaime — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:26:00 GMT

Name: William Blackstone (1723-1780)
Formal Title: Sir William Blackstone
Creator: unknown
Date Created: circa 1755
Origin: London
Current Location: National Portrait Galery, London
Short Description: William Blackstone unwittingly caused the export of the common law to all English colonies by his publication of a plain language 4-volume set on the law, just as the colonies were being settled.
Full Description:

It was said of William Blackstone that:

"He it was who first gave to the law the air of a science. He found it a skeleton and clothed it with life, colour and complexion. He embraced the cold statue and by his touch, it grew into youth, health and beauty."

Jeremy Bentham said Blackstone:

"... taught jurisprudence to speak the language of the scholar and the gentleman; put a polish upon that rugged science, cleansed her from the dust and cobwebs of the office and, if he has not enriched her with that precision which is drawn only from the sterling treasury of the sciences, has decked her out to advantage from the toilet of classical erudition, enlivened her with metaphors and allusions and sent her abroad in some measure to instruct."

His Commentaries on the Laws of England was published just as more and more commoners were able to read and write and finally could find out for themselves, without the intervention of lawyers, just what the law was.

Item 19

Lloyd Duhaime — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:34:00 GMT

Name: The Window of Justice
Formal Title: La Justice - Vitrail
Creator: unknown
Date Created: 1600
Origin: France
Current Location: Louvre Museum, Paris
Short Description: Stained glass with representation of Lady Justice.
Full Description:

A stained glass representation of Lady Justice, in all her light-splashed glory.

Item 36

Lloyd Duhaime — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:46:00 GMT

Name: The Opening of the Estates General May 5, 1789
Formal Title: l'ouverture des etats-generaux le 5 mai, 1789
Creator: Prudhomme (from Couder's original)
Date Created: circa 1800
Origin: France
Current Location: unknown
Short Description: This black and white reproduction of an original color oil painting captures the opening of the Estates General in Versailles, France.
Full Description:

Democracy had been jump-started twice before; in ancient Greece and in Rome. But for centuries it had lay buried and repressed until the upstart United States of America burst to light in 1776, to the refrain of government by the people and for the people.

None of that trans-Atlantic law magic was lost on the intellectuals of France as they watched their monarchy squeeze France to ruin.

This engraving is of the opening day of the Estates-General convened by Louis XVI at Versailles to discuss the financial crisis. However, events soon overcame his limited agenda.

According to the Encarta Encyclopedia:

"First established in 1302, the Estates-General was a French legislative body comprising members of the three groups, or estates, of French society: nobility, clergy, and commoners. Powerful in the 14th and 15th centuries, the body’s importance declined, and it did not meet at all between 1614 and 1789. In that year, called by King Louis XVI in a desperate attempt to stave off civil unrest, the Estates-General voted to make itself a permanent National Assembly. Louis’s efforts to repress the new assembly caused widespread rioting and ushered in the French Revolution."

Robespierre wrote of the event:

"The Assembly held in its hand the destiny of France and of the world."

The interval of Napoleon's dictatorship briefly interrupted France's great experiment but not for long. Though the start line was drenched in blood of the guillotine, democracy was a fait accomplit.

Item 46

Lloyd Duhaime — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:33:00 GMT

Name: The First Court House of the Canadian Province of British Columbia
Formal Title: Our First Court House
Creator: unknown
Date Created: circa 1885
Origin: Vancouver, BC
Current Location: unknown
Short Description: Black and white drawing of the first courthouse of British Columbia, Canada.
Full Description:

As European settlers - mostly British - made their way west, they were delighted to find the Pacific Coast and with weather ... what weather!

Slowly, from east to west, villages were founded including one which has become Vancouver, home of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Where the British went so, too, went the law and their common law variety of justice, the first sparks of which flew in what were modest log-homes lost amongst the maple trees of a vast and wondrous frontier.

This drawing formed the back cover of an address to graduating law students given in Vancouver in 1952. Jonathan Miller (1834-1914) later became postmaster. The caption below the original read:

"The first Court House was a small dwelling which stood adjacent to the south west corner of Water and Carrall Streets. It faced the mountains; before was the muddy beach, behind a swamp with skunk cabbage, frogs and blackberry bramble. The forest stood as a serrated wall along our Hastings Street. The Squamish name of the location was was Luk-luk-kee; i.e. grove of beautiful maple trees. "Here, upon this beach, one rainy afternoon in 1867, Captain John Deighton, alias Gassy Jack, his Indian wife, a yellow dog and two hens landed from their canoe and established Gastown. The crown colony of British Columbia built this cottage, the first public building on Burrard Inlet, called it the Customs House. Behind stood the jail, two log cells without locks. In 1870 a townsite was surveyed and called Granville. "After confederation in 1871: the Province of British Columbia styled the building Court House. Here lived Jonathan Miller (1834-1914), the only constable, and when Vancouver became an incorporated city, April 6th, 1886, this was the sole polling booth at the first civic election. The dining room, about 10' by 14", served as Council Chamber wherein the first mayor and ten aldermen took oath of office, and held their inaugural Council meeting, May 10th, 1886."

Item 33

Lloyd Duhaime — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:34:00 GMT

Name: The Elder Westrogothic Law
Formal Title: Aldrë Västgötalagen
Creator: believed to be Eskil Magnusson
Date Created: 1280
Origin: Västergötland, Sweden
Current Location: National Library of Sweden, Stockholm
Short Description: Not just a law but also the oldest complete extant manuscript in Swedish.
Full Description:

Aka Westrogothic law, oldest surviving law text of Sweden. This document, of which only one of 47 pages is pictured, dates to about 1280, and from the region of Västergötland, Sweden (now a province of Sweden).

This document is sacred to the Swedes as it is, according to the National Library of Sweden, “the oldest complete extant manuscript in Swedish.”

The calligraphy writing form is Latin in style and called Gothic Miniscule. As obvious from the image, the document has many subsequent annotations added.

In the archeological dating is accurate, the law would have been published during the reign of the King of Sweden, Magnus III.

It is called "Elder" (Aldrë Västgötalagen) because there was another version, that called "Younger Westrogothic law" (Yngre Västgötalagen).

C. Anderson wrote:

"Äldre Vstgtalagen ... confirms the right of the people to elect or depose the Swedish king and also stipulates that the king must be accepted by the (lawman, law-speaker) at the (parliament or assembly) .... Such provisions as these would have been unthinkable in most nations of Christian Europe."

As to who wrote the Aldrë Västgötalagen, Carl E. Anderson writes that:

"...an old list of lawmen from Västergötland attributes it to Eskil Magnusson, lawmaker of Västergötland around 1220.... Of course, even if Eskil played an important role in codifying it in the form we know it, he would have presumably inherited much of the laws from earlier lawmen who held it in memory in pre-literate times. In any case, the laws first started to be written down like this in the 13th century under the influence of a literate Christian clerical establishment."

REFERENCES:

Anderson, C., Formation and Resolution of Ideological Contrast in the Early History of Scandinavia (Ph. d. philosophy dissertation, Cambridge University, 1999); and subsequent correspondence with Dr. Anderson.
National Library of Sweden at kb.se/english/

Item 41

Lloyd Duhaime — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:40:00 GMT

Name: The 1776 Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen American Colonies
Formal Title: Declaration of Independence
Creator: John Turnbull
Date Created: 1817
Origin: unknown
Current Location: Rotunda, US Congress, Washington, DC
Short Description: A small group of men but a giant step for mankind.
Full Description:

This famous painting of that seminal event of 1776 when man not only rejected monarchy but also dared to speak of his "unalieanable" rights, was done by Connecticut arrtist John Turnbull (1756-1843).

Turnbull had first-hand experience with the union: he served in the Army under George Washington.

The painting if often referred to simply as the Signing of ...." but in fact, it depicts only the moment when the final draft was presented; not the signing event itself.

Thomas Jefferson is front and center, standing and presenting the document to the chair of the assembly, John Hancock (sitting).

John Adams is also right up front, in the middle, with his right hand on his hip.

All other signatories of the Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies are depicted in the painting.

Item 43

Lloyd Duhaime — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:54:00 GMT

Name: The 1689 English Bill of Rights
Formal Title: An Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject
Creator: The British Parliement
Date Created: 1689
Origin: England
Current Location: England
Short Description: The mother of all bill of rights.
Full Description:

This document is taken directly from the English statute books and shows how the 1689 Bill of Rights still appears in the law books. Note the use of f's instead of s's.

The statute is formally known as Chapter number 2 (Cap. II) of the first year of the reign (anno regni) of King William and Queen Mary (Gulielmi & Mari primo).

See the 1689 Bill of Rights for further background on this most historic document.

This statute can be found as presented in the law libraries of all common law libraries holding the Statutes of England.

Item 35

Lloyd Duhaime — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:46:00 GMT

Name: Textus Roffensis
Formal Title: Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi per Ernulphum Episcopum
Creator: unknown
Date Created: 1124
Origin: The Episcopate of Ernulf of Bec, England
Current Location: Medway Council, England
Short Description: If not for the anonymously scribed Textus Roffensis, many old English law texts may have been lost.
Full Description:

What a storied document!

Not only is this precious hand-written document, on about 235 vellum leaves, an essential source of early English law and custom, but few books have endured and survived the travails of this one.

It has been rebound many times and has even survived a swim in the Thames. The official records show that until the 1900s, this priceless artifact of British history was borrowed many times, as any library book, and often on payment of some kind of security. On one occasion legal action was required to retrieve the book from a doctor who had unknowingly bought it from an inn keeper.

Many of the borrowers added annotations in the margins.

The document is held and beautifully photographed in 2004, said photographs available at the website for the archives of the Medway Council. These modern custodians describe Textus Roffensis as:

"The compilation represents the first documentary evidence of the compromises made between the new Norman rulers and their indigenous English subjects, hinting at a convergence rather than a collision between the English language and English laws on the one hand and Romance laws and language on the other."

The Textus Roffensis recorded many ancient laws such as those of Wihtred and Alfred the Great, as best they could be rembered by the locals, and otherwise in great danger of being lost to history forever.

Item 16

Lloyd Duhaime — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:05:00 GMT

Name: Sumerian Court Judgment 2100 BC
Formal Title: Sumerian Court Judgment, c. 2100-2000 BC
Creator: unknown Mesopotamian
Date Created: 2100
Origin: Mesopotamia (now Iraq-Iran)
Current Location: London Museum, London
Short Description: A 4,000 year old court decision, judgment of the Court set in clay.
Full Description:

This clay tablet, dated at about 2100 BC, represents one of the earliest examples of jurisprudence.

Translated, the cuneiform script on this tablet refers to a legal dispute over a daughter sold by her father as a slave for 2.5 "shekels" (just under an ounce; 21 grams).

Cuneiform is the world's earliest known written language.

The use of a written language contributed significantly to the foundation of written and predictable law, and thus to peace and order in society.

The Sumerians often wrote on clay which was time-consuming but long-lasting. Because of this, this sample of their court's "wisdom" survives.

Item 3

Lloyd Duhaime — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:29:00 GMT

Name: Sophe, The Slave Singer
Formal Title: A slave-singer named Sophe
Creator: unknown
Date Created: 100 BC
Origin: Rome
Current Location: Rome, Italy
Short Description: Tombstone of the Roman slave singer, Sophe.
Full Description:

The Roman’s weren’t shy about subjugating others as slaves, those captured in wars or born to existing slaves.

One Roman writer - Slavos - suggested that up to 10,000 were sold each day in Rome, resulting in slaves for specific tasks in the owner’s household.

The object of this tomb was a slave/singer, Sophe. She would of performed in private functions for her owner and his guests.

The rich liked to boast of their opulence by providing burials for their slaves ... such as Sophe. The very fact that she was given a tombstone was remarkable and a clear mark of respect from a grateful owner.

Item 10

Lloyd Duhaime — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:49:00 GMT

Name: Sokrates 380 BC
Formal Title: Sokrates (469-399 BC)
Creator: unknown
Date Created: 380-360 BC
Origin: Greece
Current Location: British Museum
Short Description: Roman copy of a Greek original of the subject of one of the greatest trials of all time.
Full Description:

This is a Roman copy of a lost Greek bust, the latter dated to about 380 BC.

Sokrates, or Socrates as he is best known today, was a philosopher on topics including the law. He proudly maintained a sloppy appearance and a simple lifestyle, which added to his mystique and made him a very popular figure in Athens, especially with the youth.

He became the scapegoat of a failed insurrection. He was tried by his peers and because of his stoic and courageous defiance or the charges against him, he was sentenced to death in one of the most famous trials of all time.

His death was an odd one and seems to fit the man and his legacy: he was sentenced to drink a poisonous herbal mixture extracted from hemlock, which he did, in 399 BC. In Greece, drinking a "cup of hemlock" was one of the state-sanctioned means of capital punishment.

Item 4

Lloyd Duhaime — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:18:00 GMT

Name: Slavery
Formal Title: Photograph taken on HMS Daphne, 1868
Creator: unknown
Date Created: 1868
Origin: England
Current Location: British Museum
Short Description: Rare, historic image showing the misery of slavery.
Full Description:

This rare photograph was taken on board the HMS Daphne and shows young African men destined for slavery, aboard that British ship.

According to the official caption of the photograph, the Daphne intercepted a slave ship, boarded it and rescued these East African men and boys.

Many more similar pictures later came to light but this remains one of the first ones and was much used by the British in their campaign against slavery. In 1868, photography was still in its early years.

Progress in changing the law to ban slavery was piecemeal and slow but in 1833 (Abolition of Slavery Act), the British had abolished slavery throughout their colonies, including slave trading.

Hence, the HMS Daphne's intervention in 1868 and this photo of what was still legal conduct in many parts of the world.

Item 13

Lloyd Duhaime — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:39:00 GMT

Name: Scavenger's Daughter (circa 1550)
Formal Title: Scavenger's Daughter
Creator: Leonard Skeffington
Date Created: 1550
Origin: Tower of London, London
Current Location: Tower of London, London
Short Description: This torture device was once an acceptable agent of British and common law justice as a tool of law and law enforcement.
Full Description:

A torture device invented by the lieutenant of the Tower of London in the time of Henry the VIII (1491-1547). The lieutenant, Leonard Skeffington lent his name to the device earlier on, and it is still referred to in some quarters as Skeffington's daughter", "Skeffington's Irons" or "Spanish cravat".

Somehow, the name became "skavenger", perhaps named after street-cleaners, then called scavengers.

The Scavenger's daughter pulled the victim's head down to between the knees, eventually causing the person extreme discomfort and to bleed profusely from the nose and ears.

It was used during the reign of Mary I (1516-1558) to obtain confessions or to punish Protestant "hereticks" (the event known as the Marian Persecution).

Item 32

Lloyd Duhaime — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:24:00 GMT

Name: Raphael's Justice
Formal Title: Justice
Creator: Raphael
Date Created: 1510
Origin: Vatican
Current Location: Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican
Short Description: Raphael's round painting, called a rotondo, is of Lady Justice herself.
Full Description:

In this frescoed rotondo, Raphael displays his concept of justice, a female holding her scales on a cloud and amongst two groups of "litigants".

This rotondo is on the ceiling of the Stanza della Segnatura, likely Julius II's private library.

Barbara Swatt of the University of Washington Law Library wrote:

"A common representation of Justice is a blind-folded woman holding a set of scales. The origin of the Goddess of Justice goes back to antiquity. She was referred to as Ma'at by the ancient Egyptians and was often depicted carrying a sword with an ostrich feather in her hair (but no scales) to symbolize truth and justice....

"To the ancient Greeks she was known as Themis, originally the organizer of the "communal affairs of humans, particularly assemblies." Her ability to foresee the future enabled her to become one of the oracles at Delphi, which in turn led to her establishment as the goddess of divine justice. Classical representations of Themis did not show her blindfolded (because of her talent for prophecy, she had no need to be blinded) nor was she holding a sword (because she represented common consent, not coercion).

"The Roman goddess of justice was called Justitia and was often portrayed as evenly balancing both scales and a sword and wearing a blindfold. She was sometimes portrayed holding the fasces (a bundle of rods around an ax symbolizing judicial authority) in one hand and a flame in the other (symbolizing truth)."

Almost all Courthouses have some image of Justitia or Themis as she has become the symbol of justice.

Item 23

Lloyd Duhaime — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:57:00 GMT

Name: Punch's Punch
Formal Title: The Meshes of the Law
Creator: unknown
Date Created: circa 1880
Origin: Punch Magazine, London
Current Location: Punch Magazine, London
Short Description: Nothing is more vulnerable to satire than English justice, with its adherence to tradition to a fault. Since 1841, Punch Magazine has been regularly and, inadvertently, recording the history of the law in England.
Full Description:

It was a mark of a great barrister or judge to have been the butt of a cartoon in Punch Magazine. Established in 1841, the cartoonists of Punch quickly found that the courts offered the best raw material for its satire.

This remarkable and representative piece, from amongst thousands of Punch cartoons which satire the law, justice or a jurist, shows the goings-on of a magistrate's court. The old bespectacled magistrate, sporting mutton chop sideburns, leans forward over the hubbub of his court to listen to an accused give his defence.

England, like many countries in the Victoria era, aggressively prosecuted loitering and vagrancy. Punch saw the futility of this and splashes it across this pencil drawing, although, in the result, the accused was "discharged with a caution".

Item 26

Lloyd Duhaime — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:03:00 GMT

Name: Nation Builders
Formal Title: Fathers of Confederation
Creator: unknown
Date Created: 1864
Origin: Charlottetown, Prince Edward island
Current Location: Ottawa, Canada
Short Description: Nation-building was all the rage in the 1800s and continues unabated today.
Full Description:

Other than war, there is nothing man can do which has so large an impact on law and justice as creating a new nation.

In the 1700s and through to the present-day, people have come together to carve out independent nations, such as this group which, in 1864, met at Charlottetown on the little island off Nova Scotia called Prince Edward Island, and decided to form what is now Canada.

The motley group of French and English, Protestant and Roman Catholics, was headed by the charismatic Ontario politician John MacDonald, front row, fourth from the left.

Photography was all the rage so the group left their drinks inside for a moment, and sat for this historic group photo.

Three years later, their wish was granted by Queen Victoria. She chose Otawa as the capital and MacDonald to form the first government.

Item 45

Lloyd Duhaime — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:33:00 GMT

Name: Military Justice - Aztec Style
Formal Title: Human Sacrifice, Magliabechi Codex
Creator: unknown Aztec artists
Date Created: 1550
Origin: Mexico
Current Location: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Italy
Short Description: Gory military justice, Aztec style.
Full Description:

This is one page of 92 taken from the Codex Magliabechiano, named after Antonio Magliabechi, a 17th century Italian manuscript collector, and is presently held in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Italy.

The Codex - there were others (see Aztec Court in Session) - was commissioned by the Spanish who had just crushed the Aztec civilization and destroyed most of their culture including written records.

Perhaps with some regret, the Spaniards later sought to have some record of the civilization so they commissioned local artists who would have then drawn pre-conquest scenes from memory with strict orders to make it as real and life-like as possible.

Perhaps the most brutal was the fate the Aztecs reserved for captured enemy soldiers. The Aztecs preferred to cripple their enemies rather than cripple them outright. Then, the injured solider became like an adopted son to the victor and was well treated until they were lined up at a high stone altar.

One by one, led up the stairs and in practiced surgical manoeuvres, and special tools, the priest quickly opened the living soldier's chest and cut out the still beating and blood-spurting heart, and threw it to the sky as an offering to their gods. The Aztecs then ate parts of the victims body. It was all too much for the Spaniards so saw the Aztecs as evil incarnate.

The Aztecs bled themselves too often leaving small strings in wounds to easily re-bleed.

This so-called religious ceremony sickened the Spanish. Other than their lust for Aztec gold, they used this barbaric form of military punishment to justify their scorched earth policy and the destruction of the Aztec civilization. But the Spanish disgust was a tad hypocritical considering the nature, extent and torture employed by their own religious Spanish Inquisition, even then in full swing.

REFERENCES:

Duhaime, Lloyd, 1431: Nezahualcoytl's Law Code
Duhaime, Lloyd, Aztec Court in Session
Duhaime, Lloyd, Hernan Cortez (1485-1547)
Duhaime, Lloyd, Law and Justice in the Mayan and Aztec Empires (2,600 BC-1,500 AD)
Duhaime, Lloyd, LawMuseum
Duhaime, Lloyd, Timetable of World Legal History

Item 40

Lloyd Duhaime — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:50:00 GMT

Name: Marriage For Money
Formal Title: Marriage a la mode - The Marriage Contract
Creator: William Hogarth
Date Created: 1743-1745
Origin: London, England
Current Location: National Gallery, London, England
Short Description: Hogarth's brutal satire of the then-fashionable marriage for money in England (circa 1740).
Full Description:

Th full set of Marriage a la mode paintings reached six and were meant to be exhibited left to right - this is the first of the six.

The series show the stages of a marriage arranged for money, a common event amongst the wealthy in England circa 1740.

In this painting, Hogarth shows the daughter of a rich merchant "sold" for dowry cash to a bankrupt the artists calls the Earl of Squanderfield, who offers his son.

In this scene, the woman sits down and listens in, despondent, as the marriage contact is negotiated at the table to the right.

Next to the bride, according to Hogarth, is a lawyer named Silvertongue who tried to console her.

In the later prints of the series (The Death of the Earl), the bride commits adultery with the lawyer Silvertongue, who fatally shoots the new husband and then escapes. But he is captured and is hanged, so the Countess commits suicide (shown in the last of the set, entitled The Lady's Death).

Item 9

Lloyd Duhaime — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:34:00 GMT

Name: Lu-Ninshubur's Receipt
Formal Title: None
Creator: Unknown
Date Created: 2046 BC
Origin: Ur, Mesopotamia
Current Location: British Museum, London, England
Short Description: 2046 BC Legal Document of Ur
Full Description:

This small clay tablet recorded a transaction at the Sumerian palace of Ur, Mesopotamia in 2046 BC.

The Palace operated as a bank, lending money and receiving loan payments - all in the form of silver pieces.

According to the British Museum, this 4,000 year old receipt, inscribed on a clay tablet, says:

"8 shekels of silver as interest from Lu-Ninshubur, the official (being) Mansi, son of Ur Suen, has entered the Palace. Seal of the governor."

No full legal code has ever been discovered from Ur but they were known to exist from fragments.

If ever found, they would likely pre-date even Hammurabi's Code of 1750 BC.

Item 28

Lloyd Duhaime — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:37:00 GMT

Name: Law Code of Gortys or Gortyn (Crete) 480 BC
Formal Title: Extrait d'une loi sur les héritages
Creator: unknown
Date Created: circa 480 BC
Origin: Gortys, Crete
Current Location: Le Louvre, Paris
Short Description: A segment of the great law code of Gortyn, Crete (500 BC).
Full Description:

This piece, held at the Louvre in Paris, is a segment of the great law code of Gortyn which adorned the city-center of the ancient Crete city.

Gortys was once the capital of Crete and historians believe that in its heyday, about 600 BC, the population may have reached 300,000.

The full Code, written in a form of ancient Greek, was situated in the amphitheatre called Odeum. Four sets of these stones, each dealing with different legal topics, has survived. According to the Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd Edition, it: "is often described as the first European law-code; and it is the only one to have survived from ancient Greece".

The Code primarily dealt with private law matters so as to minimize and pre-determine common disputes such as property rights, compensation in the event of violence, land-ownership and debts.

The Code, as did most Greek laws after it, divided all men into one of three categories, with descending legal rights accordingly: feemen, vassals and slaves.

In this stone extract of the great Code of Gortys, the law as to inheritance rights of an adopted son are set out. In the event of the death of a father, adopted children did not take an equal share with natural sons. But if there were no natural sons, the Code established that the adopted child would share equally with any daughters and then goes on, in this stone, to add:

"... but he will not have to pay the deceased's taxes nor take his share of the estate; but he will not have a share greater than the daughters.

"If the adopted son dies without natural children, his share of the estate will revert to the estate.

"(While still alive), the father is at liberty, if he so desires, to revoke the adoption by making a statement to this effect in the public square before an assembly of citizens."

Item 6

Lloyd Duhaime — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:32:00 GMT

Name: l’Institutio alimentaria
Formal Title: l’Institutio alimentaria
Creator: unknown
Date Created: 101
Origin: found at Circello, Benevento, Italy
Current Location: Rome, Italy
Short Description: The world's first welfare system: the Roman institutio alimenaria.
Full Description:

The Romans, starting with Emperor Trajan (53-117), had a stunning avant-garde welfare program for young people in need.

Under the program, called Institutio alimentaria or alimenta, landowners took out loans and the interest payments went to the fund which gave money to youth in need. It was a high honour in Roman society to be appointed administrator, or Consul of the alimenta.

At least 53 cities in Roman control had implemented the program such as set out in this contract written on metal, and signed by the local landowners. This one is of the ancient city of Ligures Baebiani and its discovery was essential in confirming the existence of Institutio alimentaria of which legal historians had read of indirectly in other legal documents but had not, as yet, found direct evidence.

The bronze Institutio alimentaria contract had three parts.

The top is the formal preambles identifying the emperor and other officials.

The middle part confirms the loan and the receipt of interest so that “the young boys and girls receive alimony from the list.”

The bottom part sets out the terms of each individual loan including the interest rate each landowner had to pay to the fund.

Item 5

Lloyd Duhaime — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:27:00 GMT

Name: Khapokrates' Estate Settlement
Formal Title: Money and the Law
Creator: Khapokrates
Date Created: January 30, 124 BC
Origin: Egypt
Current Location: Rome, Italy
Short Description: 124 BC Egyptian estate settlement on papyrus
Full Description:

Because the Egyptians wrote mostly on papyrus, little of their writings – legal or otherwise - has survived. This is a rare exception.

In it, Khapokrates, a son of “Horos”, acknowledges to his brother, perhaps the estate administrator, that he did receive a sixth of his father’s estate. The document refers to that share as being comprised of “silver, the gold, the copper, the clothing, the buildings, the grains, all the domestic (objects), all house requisites, all cattle, donkeys, small cattle, the right to claim debts externally.”

Perhaps at the estate’s request, the settlement includes a penalty clause where Khapokrates agrees that if he breaches the agreement as to his one-sixth share, he “shall give 5 (pieces) of real silver” to the Pharaoh and a further larger amount of silver to the administrator “and to your siblings”.

Item 20

Lloyd Duhaime — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:25:00 GMT

Name: Justinian's Great Decision
Formal Title: Justinien
Creator: Benjamin Constant (1845-1902)
Date Created: 1886
Origin: France
Current Location: France
Short Description: A black and white canvass of the great Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, portraying his great decision to research and publish his Institutes.
Full Description:

It was a thousand years after the death of Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinian (482-565) that French painter Benjamin Constant visualized and portrayed on this canvass the great jurist commanding of his royal court a consolidation of Roman law into a great code, which became known as the Institutes, the Corpus Juris Civilis or the Pandects.

This was a seminal moment in law and justice as from it came an understandable and fair Roman law code which served as the direct basis for the civil law system, a system which is by far the most prevalent legal system in the world today.

Likely one of the other persons the artist Constant incorporated into his image is Tribonian, who led the task and became Justinian's top legal advisor, and may be the robed officer sitting just to the right of Justinian.

Item 31

Lloyd Duhaime — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:53:00 GMT

Name: Justinian Receiving the Corpus from Trobinian
Formal Title: Justinian Receiving the Pandects (civil laws) from Trebonian
Creator: Lorenzo Lotto
Date Created: 1511
Origin: The Vatican
Current Location: The Vatican Museum
Short Description: Based on a drawing by Raphael - but painted by another - , this fresco shows a pivotal moment in the development of law.
Full Description:

This fresco was executed by Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556) based on Raphael's drawing.

Presently housed in the Chapel of Urban VIII, The Vatican, the image is of Justinian receiving from his trusted jurist Tribonian, the Corpus Juris Civilis (which included a digest component, called "pandects"), an essential part of Justinian's Roman law consolidation effort of 533 AD.

Raphael (1483-1520) drew the image but left the painting to Lotto. In the Vatican rooms that the fresco is based (Stanza della Segnatura or Room of the Signatura), or just Raphael' stanze, Raphael attempted to set out the important events and people in the history of the world up to that time (1511). All saw Justinian's consolidation for what it was: a monumental contribution to law and order throughout Europe.

Raphael was one of the greatest painters ever - along with Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. The painting is one of a set which, together, Raphael wanted to:

"... illustrate the three highest categories of the human spirit: truth, goodness and beauty."

REFERENCES:

Guide to the Vatican (Vatican City: Edizioni Musei Vaticani,, 2005), page 93-95.

Item 8

Lloyd Duhaime — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:58:00 GMT

Name: Justinian at Ravenna
Creator: unknown
Date Created: 547
Current Location: Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy
Short Description: A mosaic of the great law-giver, Justinian.
Full Description:

The mosaic is actually little coloured stone squares affixed together. The life-like portrayal of Justinian exudes so much life that historians debate whether it is based on his real appearances. Justinian's contribution to Roman and civil law was significant.

In the mosaic, Justinian, crowned, is surrounded by religious leaders on his left, and his imperial guard on his far right. Much has been made of the fact that he is surrounded by 12 "disciples" and that he has religious officials on one side, and secular on the other, just as he balanced his government and, for that matter, his personality.

Ravenna had been the capital of the Roman Empire from 402 to 493, when it was overtaken by Ostrogoths.

In May of 540, under Justinian and his general Belisarius, the Romans retook Ravenna. This mosaic was created about seven years later. According to P. Hunt, who wrote Byzantine Art as Propaganda: Justinian and Theodora at Ravenna:

"The officials (in the mosaic) cannot be easily named, although ... Belisarius (is) most likely the bearded man on the left wearing the purple and with the insignia on his right shoulder."