Land Law: European Edition Book

Stein's work is a concise, yet fairly thorough introduction to the influence of Roman Law on European Legal History. It begins by tracing the roots of Roman Law (The Twelve Tables), and shows how it developed through the Republican, and then later, the Imperial ages (Code of Justinian). The influence of this legal system was not based on the force of government, but by quality (to adopt Sabbatani "Non ratione imperii, sed imperio rationis.")

It then shows the reception of Roman law in the nation state, and brings it into the modern era with the codification movement, and finally notes how the study of Roman Law is becoming more relevant as a result of the European Community movement, although now it is less of a source of common law based on reason and more as an aspiration to a unified law by enactment.

Well worth a read for canonists, Romanists, and legal scholars. Everyone else should probably give it a pass.