YALE LAW JOURNAL fusion. Nowhere has it been so difficult to win assent to what some have deemed ... more YALE LAW JOURNAL fusion. Nowhere has it been so difficult to win assent to what some have deemed fundamental dogma. 9 Nor is this all. What principles-even if of a conflicting kind-have yet emerged are comparatively new in character. They do not go back to that venerable time when Richard I endowed the Anglo-Saxon race with legal memory. There is no trace of them in Bracton. 10 The Year-Books do not aid us. 11 Coke-it seems marvellous enough-is silent upon them; or, at any rate, it is a different tale he has to tell. Our theories come in with the Revolution of i688, and they bear the impress of a single, vivid personality. So that if they have a history, it is short enough to raise deep questions. And, indeed, it must be admitted that the problems inherent in our principles are very formidable. There is no field of law into which they do not seem to enter. Contract, tort, negilgence-in all of these they have their word to say, and it is a word of growing import for our time. 2 The age has passed when each man might bear untroubled the burden of his own life; today , the complexities of social organization seem, too often, to have cast us, like some Old Man of the Sea, upon the shoulders of our fellows. Where, above all the men of Mediaeval England gloried in their own labor, we, or, at least, many of us, take pleasure in dividends that have been vicariously earned. It is an age of abundant service. Vast numbers are working for other men and obeying their commands. Service implies action. A tells B to perform some work. When B's work entails loss to C, what is the relation of A to the transaction? We have maxims and to spare upon this question. Respondeat superior is an argument which, like David, has slain its tens of thousands. Its seeming simplicity conceals in fact a veritable hornet's nest of stinging difficulties. It is the merest dogma, 9 See Mr. Baty's fierce attack in his brilliant, if perverse, Vicarious Liability (I915). Dean Thayer in the posthumous paper published in 29-ABv. L. REv. Soi has suggested sdme interesting possibilities of future development. 10 Cf. Bracton ff. Iisb, i24b, i58, 7a, i7:2b, 2o4b. 11 Prof. Wigmore in 7 HARv. L. REV. 315 has cited some evidence to the contrary, but it is hardly decisive. The cases which foreshadow the modern doctrine are conceived with special duties. Cf. Cowell, Institutes, p. 207; Southern v. Howe, Cro. Jac. 468; Noy, Maxims, chap. xliv. For the general rule, see Rolle, Abridgment, tit. Action on the Case, pl. 95; Walthain v. Mulgar (16o6) Moore, 776. 12 Cf. Dr. Baty's remark that the modern law is injuring industry, op. cit. p. 154. 16 See Dean Wigmore in 3 Select Essays in Anglo-American Law, 474. '7 Cf. Mr. Baty's remarks, op. cit. 23-4.
Les années cinquante marquaient non seulement la publication de la première édition des Grands Ar... more Les années cinquante marquaient non seulement la publication de la première édition des Grands Arrêts, mais aussi la publication des premiers traités du droit administratif anglais. Tandis que l'ouvrage de M. Long et ses collègues avait pour mission de consolider la connaissance du droit administratif français 1 , la mission des traités anglais était de former une conception du droit administratif. Ce chapitre a pour objet d'expliquer la trajectoire distincte de la doctrine dans les deux systèmes. Le droit administratif n'apparaît pas d'un seul coup. Il est le fruit d'une longue maturation au sein de la communauté des juristes. Mon argument est que le sujet « droit administratif » est formé par la doctrine en fonction de la cohérence de deux activités institutionnelles : les décisions de justice et l'enseignement. L'activité des juridictions explique l'importance du sujet, surtout pour les professionnels du droit. L'enseignement donne lieu à un marché pour les cours, manuels et traités dans lesquels la systématisation du sujet peut être conçue et présentée. Les casebooks tels que les Grands arrêts de la jurisprudence administrative constituent un élément important dans la compréhension du lien entre l'ac-tivité professionnelle et le contenu de l'enseignement. En dépit des auteurs
YALE LAW JOURNAL fusion. Nowhere has it been so difficult to win assent to what some have deemed ... more YALE LAW JOURNAL fusion. Nowhere has it been so difficult to win assent to what some have deemed fundamental dogma. 9 Nor is this all. What principles-even if of a conflicting kind-have yet emerged are comparatively new in character. They do not go back to that venerable time when Richard I endowed the Anglo-Saxon race with legal memory. There is no trace of them in Bracton. 10 The Year-Books do not aid us. 11 Coke-it seems marvellous enough-is silent upon them; or, at any rate, it is a different tale he has to tell. Our theories come in with the Revolution of i688, and they bear the impress of a single, vivid personality. So that if they have a history, it is short enough to raise deep questions. And, indeed, it must be admitted that the problems inherent in our principles are very formidable. There is no field of law into which they do not seem to enter. Contract, tort, negilgence-in all of these they have their word to say, and it is a word of growing import for our time. 2 The age has passed when each man might bear untroubled the burden of his own life; today , the complexities of social organization seem, too often, to have cast us, like some Old Man of the Sea, upon the shoulders of our fellows. Where, above all the men of Mediaeval England gloried in their own labor, we, or, at least, many of us, take pleasure in dividends that have been vicariously earned. It is an age of abundant service. Vast numbers are working for other men and obeying their commands. Service implies action. A tells B to perform some work. When B's work entails loss to C, what is the relation of A to the transaction? We have maxims and to spare upon this question. Respondeat superior is an argument which, like David, has slain its tens of thousands. Its seeming simplicity conceals in fact a veritable hornet's nest of stinging difficulties. It is the merest dogma, 9 See Mr. Baty's fierce attack in his brilliant, if perverse, Vicarious Liability (I915). Dean Thayer in the posthumous paper published in 29-ABv. L. REv. Soi has suggested sdme interesting possibilities of future development. 10 Cf. Bracton ff. Iisb, i24b, i58, 7a, i7:2b, 2o4b. 11 Prof. Wigmore in 7 HARv. L. REV. 315 has cited some evidence to the contrary, but it is hardly decisive. The cases which foreshadow the modern doctrine are conceived with special duties. Cf. Cowell, Institutes, p. 207; Southern v. Howe, Cro. Jac. 468; Noy, Maxims, chap. xliv. For the general rule, see Rolle, Abridgment, tit. Action on the Case, pl. 95; Walthain v. Mulgar (16o6) Moore, 776. 12 Cf. Dr. Baty's remark that the modern law is injuring industry, op. cit. p. 154. 16 See Dean Wigmore in 3 Select Essays in Anglo-American Law, 474. '7 Cf. Mr. Baty's remarks, op. cit. 23-4.
Les années cinquante marquaient non seulement la publication de la première édition des Grands Ar... more Les années cinquante marquaient non seulement la publication de la première édition des Grands Arrêts, mais aussi la publication des premiers traités du droit administratif anglais. Tandis que l'ouvrage de M. Long et ses collègues avait pour mission de consolider la connaissance du droit administratif français 1 , la mission des traités anglais était de former une conception du droit administratif. Ce chapitre a pour objet d'expliquer la trajectoire distincte de la doctrine dans les deux systèmes. Le droit administratif n'apparaît pas d'un seul coup. Il est le fruit d'une longue maturation au sein de la communauté des juristes. Mon argument est que le sujet « droit administratif » est formé par la doctrine en fonction de la cohérence de deux activités institutionnelles : les décisions de justice et l'enseignement. L'activité des juridictions explique l'importance du sujet, surtout pour les professionnels du droit. L'enseignement donne lieu à un marché pour les cours, manuels et traités dans lesquels la systématisation du sujet peut être conçue et présentée. Les casebooks tels que les Grands arrêts de la jurisprudence administrative constituent un élément important dans la compréhension du lien entre l'ac-tivité professionnelle et le contenu de l'enseignement. En dépit des auteurs
Uploads
Papers by John Bell