Out of Print
(from the Preface of the 1956 reprint) This little book, first published in 1948, was intended principally for students preparing for the examinations prescribed by the Council of Legal Education as a preliminary qualification for call to the English Bar.
It was designed (so I wrote) "to help students who present themselves for the examination in Roman Law because they must, or in Roman-Dutch Law because they choose ''. My hope (I said) was that it might give to all of them some sense of the continuity and vitality of Roman Law.
Thus understood, it has met with a wider acceptance and this will continue to apply to all students of the Inns of Court, although from Michaelmas of next year Roman-Dutch Law will no longer be a permitted alternative to the examination in the English Law of Real Property now required of all the students.
The Publishers, therefore, have not hesitated to re-issue the Conspectus with some few amendments of the original text, and the author hopes that it will merit and enjoy a continued popularity. The references to Lee, Elements of Roman Law, are to the 4th edition of that book.
I take this opportunity to acknowledge my debt to the late Professor Paul Koschaker's masterly work Europa und das romische Recht which I have freely used in composing the Second Part of this Conspectus.
R.W. Lee Oxford, December 31st, 1955
