This list has recently discussed the
issue of whether the Ten Commandments are, or ever have been, the
foundation of the Anglo-American legal system.
A book was published earlier this
year that sheds light on this issue. It is entitled "The Ten
Commandments in History." It was based on a manuscript left behind by
the late Professor Emeritus Paul Grimley Kuntz, "a distinguished member
of the Emory philosophy faculty and an ardent supporter of the Law and
Religion Program." (From the book's "Acknowledgments," p. xiv, by
Professor John Witte, Jr., writing in his capacity as general editor of
Emory University Studies in Law and Religion.) The Supreme Court's
decision in Stone v. Graham was for the late Prof. Kuntz "the catalyst
for almost ten years of research and thought about the Decalogue and
its role in American life." (From the book's Foreword, p. viii, by the
late Prof. Kuntz's spouse, Prof. Marion Leathers Kuntz.)
The book itself is primarily a
history of ideas, how various thinkers throughout history have been
reacted to the Ten Commandments, but the book does touch upon the issue
of whether the Ten Commandments are the foundation of the
Anglo-American legal system.
Chapter 5 is entitled, "King
Alfred: The Decalogue and Anglo-American Law." Alfred the Great lived
from 849 to 899. (Book, p. 46.) Prof. Kuntz writes:
". . . . The hostility between
the Roman Empire and Christians ended with tolerance from Constantine,
and then he gave to the church the support of the state. The pattern
of Roman conversion was followed in all the nations of Europe--among
Latin nations, Germanic, Scandinavian, Slavic, etc. Does this mean
that the Mosaic Decalogue became part of the law of these peoples when
they were converted to Christianity? And how did changes introduced by
the gospel affect the legal code?
"Political historians and
historians of law do not offer us a general and comparative study [too
bad--maybe somebody on this list can remedy this deficiency--R.S.H.],
but one notable case is the code of King Alfred the Great. This is
particularly of interest since it shows the Decalogue as basic to the
civil religion of England, and of the many colonial offspring, which
build upon the traditions of common law. Thanks to Alfred the law is
also the king's law." (Book, pp. 46-47.)
In the book's later chapter on
Jeremy Bentham, the book states that in response to Jeremy Bentham, ". . . . a historian might object that
Alfred the Great prefaced his collection of Saxon laws with the Ten
Commandments from Exodus 20, that the monarch of Great Britain takes a
sacred oath at coronation to enforce God's law."
Thus, the Ten Commandments are,
or at least used to be, the foundation of the Anglo-American legal
system.
I will stipulate that it would
be no small challenge to reconcile this proposition with the Supreme
Court's post-World War II jurisprudence. But even assuming that
American law is no longer founded upon the Ten Commandments, but on
some other basis of some sort or other, for well over a thousand years,
the Ten Commandments were the foundation of Anglo-American law.
Moreover, it is by no means clear that the Supreme Court's post-World
War II jurisprudence will endure, either as it currently exists, or in
modified form.
Very truly yours,
Ross S. Heckmann
Attorney at Law
Arcadia, California
_______________________________________________
To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
