Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 January 2006
The unification of European law – if it is ever achieved – belongs to the future, but much of this present article will be devoted to the past. This makes me look like the ancient Roman king Janus, upon whom the god Saturn bestowed the gift of seeing the future as well as the past, which led to his famous representation, in his Roman temple, as a man with two faces. As a professional historian I am, of course, concerned with past centuries, but the future of Europe and European law concerns me as a citizen of the Old World.