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67 U. Cin. L. Rev. 365 (1998-1999)
From the Scopes Trial to the Human Genome Project: Where Is Biology Taking the Law

handle is hein.journals/ucinlr67 and id is 375 raw text is: UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI LAW REVIEW VOLUME 67 WINTER 1999 No. 2 WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT LECTURE FROM THE SCOPES TRIAL TO THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT: WHERE IS BIOLOGY TAKING THE LAW?* Gilbert S. Merritt Is biology--more specifically, is the science of genetics-about to bring us a revolutionary change in American law? That is the subject of this lecture. A major feature of the Western legal tradition is the dynamic nature of law, its ever-changing character. By way of illustration, let me mention briefly four examples of major revolutions in our legal history. The first and most far-reaching legal revolution inspired the forma- tion of the Western legal tradition in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This revolution arose in part from the rediscovery and the elaboration of Justinian's Code of Roman law. From the great change that followed, we trace the development of the canon law, the separation of secular law from church law, the development of secular legal institu- tions, and the evolution of civil law in Europe and the common law in England.' * The William Howard Taft Lecture, delivered at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, April 16, 1998. ** Judge Merritt has been a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit since 1977, served as ChiefJudge from 1989-96, and served as a member and as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the United StatesJudicial Conference. Prior to his appointment to the bench, he practiced law in Nashville, Tennessee, and was a member of the faculty at Vanderbilt University Law School. 1. In the most interesting book on law I have ever read, Harvard Law Professor HaroldJ. Berman comprehensively describes the beginnings and the development of Westem law. In the first chapter of Law and Revolution Vie Formation of the Western Legal Tradition, Professor Berman says: [It is a principal thesis of this book that there was a time when what is known today as a legal system-a distinct, integrated body of law, consciously systematized-did not exist among the peoples of Western Europe, and that at the end of the eleventh century and in the early twelfth century and thereafter legal systems were created for the first time both within the Roman Catholic Church and within the various kingdoms, cities, and other secular polities of the West.

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