Re: Ten Commandments "Basis of Our Laws" Position

[Paul Finkelman]

Sandy:  There is NO reason to believe that Roman law was affected by the 
Ten C. Nor is there much evidence that American law was affected by the 
10-C; except perhaps to reject portions of it.  The First Amendment is a 
clear rejection of 10-C provisions on "one God," the ban on "sculpted 
images" (including by the way all those angels hanging from Christmas 
trees  ("Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness 
of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, 
or that is in the water under the earth").  As long as we do not do it 
in court we are constitutionally free to "swear falsely by the name of 
the Lord" (take the Lord's name in vain)

Paul Finkelman
Sanford Levinson wrote:
Is there any reason at all to believe that Roman Law owed anything at 
all to the Ten Commandments?  I take it that Roman Law is the basic 
source of most European civil law.
 
sandy

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Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 12:20 PM
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Subject: Re: Ten Commandments "Basis of Our Laws" Position

        I think the current use of the claim that our laws are based on 
the Ten Commandments, or at least the way I understand this phrase in 
its strongest sense, is that  the Ten Commandments are our law's 
foundation in two senses: (1) Our laws are derived historically, 
conceptually, and so forth in a unique manner from  the Ten 
Commandments, so that if the Ten Commandments never existed our law 
would be recognizably different, if it would exist at all, and 
(2) because of (1) (perhaps or as a separate manner), justification of 
our laws must refer to the Ten Commandments.  (I'm not entirely sure (1) 
and (2) are distinct in any interesting way).  By "current use" (above) 
I mean how the contention functions in political discourse today.
 
Bobby
 
Robert Justin Lipkin
Professor of Law
Widener University School of Law
Delaware

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--
Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East 4th Place
Tulsa, Oklahoma  74104-2499
918-631-3706 (office)
918-631-2194 (fax)
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