ABSTRACT
WHEN Sir Edward Coke once declared that the Common Law of England was 'the perfection of reason',1 he was perhaps indulging in no more than a momentary, if surprising, outburst of enthusiasm.2 But when he went on to assert that' reason is the life of the law', 3 he was giving expression to a dogma of great antiquity, and one which has persisted in various forms until modern times. As early as Aristotle we find law described as 'reason without passion',4 while, only the other day, a distinguished political scientist has told us that law is the rational product of thought, deriving its ultimate sanction from the conviction in the minds of men that it is in its essence rational.5
