ABSTRACT
The answers are to be sought first in a long story o f struggles by and among various worldly institutions, kinship groups, property owners, the Christian Church (later churches), emperors, kings and nation states. The chief episodes o f that story are recounted here in order to account for the state o f the law as it stood on the eve o f the current process o f legal change that has been described in this work, and to bring out the significance o f the present series o f changes.
