University of Texas School of Law - Peregrinus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

Page 5 text:

The University of Texas School of Law Volume 49 CONTENTS Events of the Year Organizations Students Deans, Faculty, Staff Index ■ ■ I ' llllll 11 1 ' ' ' ' ■ ' ■ I ll ip-m-mr u M

Page 4 text:

CONTENTS events of the Year Organizations ans. Facukv. Siaf

Page 6 text:

JUDGE W.S. SIMKIN ' S OWN STORY OF THE PEREGRINUS You ask for the origin of Peregrinus. I well remember its birth - in fact, I was pre- sent at the accouchement. This nondescript sprang fully armed and equipped for its mission not from a mental Jove, but from the disori- ent4ed brain of a Savage. Many years ago, I was trying to explain to the class in Equity, the origin of the system in Rome and the sources of equity in the Roman Empire. At the time fledglings just from the high schools were admitted to the Law School. Many of them had never heard of the Roman Empire, and not a few spelled cow with a K. Well, I explained to them than when Rome conquered a nation it was incorporated into the Roman Empire sub- ject to its own laws and not to the laws of Rome - that the Roman citizen was not subject of the laws of these incorporated nations - that in due course commerce sprang up between the citizens of Rome and barbaric nations, and there was no law to determine and settle their contractual relations. The Roman Emperor, to set- tle the troubles arising out of the fact that there was no law applicable to control their contracts, appointed a Praetor or chancellor to trav- el among these nations and to settle all disputes without reference to the Laws of Rome, or of the incorporated Nations, but to do justice and decide all disputes, alone by the conscience of the Praetor. Peregrinating from one nation to the other, he was called a Praetor Peregrinus. The boneheads of the class evidently thought that Peregrinus was an internal organ of the body for they continually greeted each other, ' How is your Peregrinus today? This fact seems to have developed the humorous side of the inci- dent, and Russell Savage developed a concrete expres- sion of it on the blackboard and thus the tradition began. Russell drew better than he knew, for the nondescript animal symbolizes both in limb and attitude the maxims in equity that guide the administration of the system. For instance, on one of the front feet as originally drawn was an Irish ditcher ' s boot - indicating the law ' s protec- tion of the least of mankind. On the other front foot were naked claws, indicating the greatest of mankind must fear its power. The arched back in the attitude of spring- ing, indicated the law was ever ready to protect right or prevent wrong. The sharp beak indicated the power to penetrate the mysteries of the law which the true student must obtain by study. The bushy tail indicated that Equity brushes away the technicalities of the law and does justice to the merits. 2 - Legend of the Peregrinus