In jeopardy now?

Our legal tradition blends together several historical Laws. A highly developed Mediterranean society used the Roman law of 400 B.C. well into the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It was based upon unlimited imperial power. The Theodosian Code of 438 A.D, kept the old Roman law but now Christian influences were recognizable. When the Huns invaded Europe beginning in the 400's, they contributed nothing to cultured society. Theirs was a success of nihilism. Barbarian law their law; it was tribal. A man did not possess personal dignity; his success or failure was part of a group. Their early laws were in some poetic form that could be easily committed to memory . Agriculture was primitive. Their main interest was in some kind of warfare out of which came booty and slaves. They had no notion of the state, knew nothing of ‘public law’. Law was conceived as a private thing. Into the 500's, barbarian law persisted along with Roman law in the empire.

Then came Isidore of medieval Seville who in the early 600's said that law develops out of custom, nature anr Revelation. He said it must agree with reason, agree with revelation, be in harmony with all truth that leads to salvation. He said that it is an enactment of the people, but “Law must be just, fitting, possible, according to nature and custom, necessary, useful, clear, and for the advantage of all.” In the 800's the Norse invaded and destroyed culture again and the Huns took backstage. The ravages of these invaders provoked cries of agony in the literature of the time. But Western civilization eventually prevailed and in the 900's feudal law became the rage. Though theocratic, it had its pattern of order and disorder resulted from rebellion against customary law.

Today the United States, still in the Western tradition, blends the barbarian and the Christian, the reasoned and the customary. Or do we? The Islamic law, of much of the oriental world, has billions of believers, tends to be barbarian yet it flourishes and its goal is a global Caliphate. Many observers see Islamic law as infiltrating the West. Are we Roman, Theodosian or Medieval - or a blend of all three? Will we stave off the invasions of Muslims? Should we? The highest justice patterned on Divine law seems to me to be written into our Constitution but I believe it is in jeopardy NOW.