Common law, civil law, and the challenge from federalism

Abstract

Let me start with some personal anecdotes regarding the life of he who was rightly termed “the great Litvinoff.”1 Borrowing again from the same source, I shall call them “Litvinovian observations.”2 To each observation I shall assign a label; each will attempt to illustrate some trait of his intriguing personality. The first one I shall name, not without a certain boldness, “Litvinovian Intransigence.”3 From the outset I must clarify that I am talking about intransigence in certain matters only—minor matters it would seem, matters of detail. I shall illustrate Litvinovian Intransigence with two one-on-one experiences. My first encounter with Saúl Litvinoff occurred at a time when he and other LSU faculty were visiting Argentina. Roberto Bosca, then Dean of Universidad Austral Law School, had asked if I could take don Saúl and him as my guests to the Jockey Club in Buenos Aires. The three of us were to have dinner. But at the lobby of the Club, don Saúl was kindly requested to wear a blue jacket in place of the extremely elegant beige jacket that he was wearing. I had completely forgotten to forewarn my guest that light colors are not admitted at night in this traditional venue. This omission would not have been a problem since the Club has extra blue jackets intended precisely for these situations. That is, it would not have been a problem had it not been for Litvinovian Intransigence. Saúl refused to take the old, worn out, rather dirty jacket he was offered by the bewildered janitor. He would not remove his own beautiful garment, even if that entailed leaving the Jockey Club and, as it turned out, dining at a much less elegant restaurant: a last minute, improvised choice. For don Saúl, the only thing that really mattered was that his own elegance had been preserved...