From John Adams to William Cranch, 30 December 1790
To William Cranch
Philadelphia Decr 30 1790
My dear Sir
I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter1 and should be happy to furnish you with any hints concerning the study of the Civil Law, which may occur to me after having laid aside all such studies for many years. Under the general phrase Civil law is often understood what is commonly considered the learning necessary to obtain a degree of Doctor of Laws LLD the common abreviation signifies Legis Legum Doctor or Utriusque Juris Doctor. One branch of the division is the Law of Nature and Nations and the other the Roman Law
Of the first of these, Grotius, Puffendorf, Burlamaque, Vattel Heineccius, Bynkershoeck, Noodt, are the writers most in use and I suppose as good as any— Of the last, if your intention is to confine your inquiries to the English language, Woods institute of the Civil Law, Domat, Dr Taylor and Wiseman’s Law of Laws may answer your purpose. But if, as I presume it will, your ambition and curiosity should prompt you to become a master of this divine science as it used to be called, you will in the first place find it necessary to increase your familiarity with the Latin language and the Roman learning in general. The institutes of Justinian, the Code the Novells and the digest are all in latin. Commentators on all these writings are innumerable. But Hoppius, Vinnius, Gail and Cujaicius with Oughtons Ordo Judiciorum are esteemed the best.2 There are many little Compendium’s or abridgments in latin of the institutes, which you may read to advantage— They will frequently fall in your way at sales and may be purchased cheap. But if you read carefully the institutes and acquire a familiarity with the titles and indexes of the Corpus Juris, So that you may be able readily to Search a point as you may have occasion, you will find it very useful and agreeable.— Those who pretend to be very learned in this way Study the Greek translation of Theophilus, of the institutes of Justinian which is indeed rather a commentary I wish you much pleasure and profit at the bar and am with much affection your friend as well as Uncle
John Adams.
LbC in CA’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr William Cranch. Braintree.”; APM Reel 115.
1. Of 11 Dec., above.
2. JA’s recommendations fell into three categories, and nearly all were drawn from various editions held in his library at MB. JA’s recommended reading on the law of nations included: Hugo Grotius, The Rights of War and Peace, London, 1738; Samuel von Pufendorf, Law of Nature and Nations, London, 1729; Jean Jacques Burlamaqui, The Principles of Natural and Politic Law, 2 vols., London, 1763; Emmerich de Vattel, The Law of Nations, or Principles of the Law of Nature, Applied to the Conduct and Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns, London, 1793; Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, A Methodical System of Universal Law, 2 vols., London, 1741; Cornelius van Bynkershoek, Opera Omnia, Leyden, 1767; and Gerard Noodt, Opera Omnia, Leyden, 1760. For the second category, of civil law, JA advised reading these works: Thomas Wood, A New Institute of the Imperial or Civil Law, London, 1704; Jean Domat, Civil Law in Its Natural Order, transl. W. Strahan, 2 vols., London, 1722; John Taylor, The Elements of Civil Law, Cambridge, 1755; and Sir Robert Wiseman, The Law of Laws, London, 1656. JA’s final category, of suggested reading in Roman law, included: Justinian, Codex, Digesta, Institutiones, and Novellae; Joachim Hoppe, Commentatio succincta ad Institutiones Justinianeas, Danzig, 1693; Arnoldus Vinnius, Commentarius . . . institutionum imperialium, Leyden, 1642; Andreas von Gail, Practicarum observationum, tam ad processum judiciarium, praesertim imperialis camerae, Cologne, 1578; Jacques Cujas, Opera omnia, in decem tomos distributa, 10 vols., Paris, 1658; and the Greek translation of Theophilus’ Institutes of Justinian, The Hague, 1751 ().