Here's you letter Shark.
Just did a copy and past as i don't know how to put up a PDF on here. Happy to send it to you personally or if somebody could help me post a PDF on here i'll put it up.
Just some fun man.
ONS VERW./OUR REF
EK/Opinion/Query
DATUM/DATE
25 April 2019
Dear Mr. Plum
We refer to your interesting yet strange enquiry about the origins of Western Law. It is always quite dangerous to speak of “origins”, simply because somehow one always seems to find earlier beginnings.
Nevertheless, western law refers to the legal traditions of western cultures. A widely known fact is that the roots of Western law lay directly in Roman Law and Canon Law. Yes, throughout time there could have been many other minor influences on the development of Western Law. These influences include the Greek influence, which is to date still a major debate amongst historians. To the writer hereof it is clear that if there was any influence on the development of Western Law other than that of the Romans, such influence would be that of the Greeks. Especially with regard to their democratic views of the law and the fact that democracy was first mentioned by the Greeks. The word itself is derived from the Greek language.
2
With regard to the above we must consider the fact that an influence is not absolute. The legal systems developed by the Romans cannot be said to have been created by the Greeks, some ideas were simply borrowed to enhance an already existing legal system or thought. The Romans actively developed a legal system spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence (philosophy of law), starting with the first written text the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC) and later the developing of the Corpus Juris Civilis (AD 529). Extracts or ideas from these materials are still used today in many parts of the world although not in its original form. The impact that Roman law had on the development of Western law is too great to be ignored. In fact when one refers to Western Law we synonymously refer to the law of the Romans.
Today, Roman law forms the basic framework for civil law which is the most widely used legal system in the present time. Therefore knowledge of Roman law is often a prerequisite to a basic understanding of the legal norms in force. The development of our own legal system in South Africa was influenced by Roman-Dutch law.
The writer hereof stands to be corrected, upon instruction we could proceed to do more in depth research if same is required. On a personal note we would like to thank you for your instruction and we are happy that this time round it was not related to any possible social misconduct action as is usually the case.
We look forward to hearing from you in due course.
Yours faithfully
NELSON BORMAN & VENNOTE Ella Kruger