My mentor, Dr. Rousas J. Rushdoony, frequently spoke with high praise of Professor Harold J. Berman, the Harvard Law School professor (influenced by Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy) who wrote an extremely important book, "Law and Revolution".

The New York Times (Nov. 18, 2007, p. 29) said "Harold J. Berman, a scholar whose expertise in Russian law took him to a Soviet courtroom to fight for royalties owed Arthur Conan Doyle, and whose forceful scholarship altered thinking about Western law’s origins, died on Nov. 13 in Brooklyn. He was 89.

"His daughter Jean Berman announced his death.

"Mr. Berman wrote 25 books and more than 400 articles on subjects as diverse as Russian culture and comparative legal history. They were published in over 20 languages.

"He taught for 37 years at Harvard Law School, where he was the Ames professor of law. He then taught for two decades at Emory University School of Law as the Robert W. Woodruff professor.

"Mr. Berman relished unexplored intellectual geography. When he decided to study Soviet law as a World War II Army veteran at Yale Law School, there was no one to teach it. So he taught himself, starting with the Russian language.

"The language training, served him well in Moscow in 1958, in the first case he ever argued. Representing the estate of Arthur Conon Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, he sought to extract royalties from the Soviet state on millions of Conan Doyle books sold in the Soviet Union. Winning in a Moscow city court, he later lost the case on appeal to a higher Russian Federation court.

"At the time, he was a professor at Harvard Law School, one of the first Yale graduates to have that title. His research there questioned whether the commonly understood underpinnings of Western law were too narrow. Inspired by Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, who taught him at Darmouth as an undergraduate, Mr. Berman saw Western history as a river whose course was repeatedly changed by transforming revolutions. But Mr. Berman added important wrinkles: the importance of law as an independent historical force in hits own right – not just a reflection of other forces like economics – and an emphasis on the link between religious tradition and law.

"His most influential work was ‘Law and Revolution’ (1983), which rejected the old idea that modern legal systems began in the 16^th century. He argued that the 11^th-century rise of papal authority with its own canon law jump-started modern law.

"The journal Constitutional Commentary said in 2005 that the book had become ‘the standard point of departure for work in the field.’ The American Political Science Review said, ‘this may be the most important book on law in our generation.’

"In 2004, Mr. Berman published ‘Law and Revolution II: The Impact of the Protestant Reformation on the Western Legal Tradition.’ This explored how the 16^th century German Reformation and the 17-century English Revolution gave birth to a new civil order apart from religion. Soon, marriage certificates came from civil agencies, and church law governed only churches.

"Mr. Berman often left the ivory tower. In 2005, he joined the religious broadcaster Pat Robertson in writing a brief to defend the Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol. He called the commandments a foundation of Texas law, and noted that the Declaration of Independence invoked God.

"Harold Joseph Berman was born on Feb. 13, 1918, in Hartford. Under a theory he enunciated in 2006 for the Fulton County Daily Report, an Atlanta legal and business newspaper, he said that he, like all children, had been a law student from a young age.

" ‘A child says, "It’s my toy." That’s property law,’ he said. ‘A child says, "You promised me." That’s contract law. A child says, "He hit me first." That’s criminal law. A child says, "Daddy said I could." That’s constitutional law.’

"Mr. Berman graduated from Dartmouth, where he was editor in chief of the college newspaper. He studied legal history at the London School of Economics and earned a master’s degree in history from Yale.

"After a year at Yale Law School, he was drafted into the Army, and later awarded a Bronze Star for his work as a cryptographer. After finishing at Yale, he taught at Stanford for a year and joined Harvard in 1948.

"In the 1950s, even when McCarthyism reigned, Mr. Berman often visited the Soviet Union to study and teach. He was a frequently cited source of news about changes in Soviet law in the 1950s, when Communist leaders were liberalizing government and society after Stalin’s death.

"His stays were so long that he enrolled his children in Soviet schools. His wife, the former Ruth Carol Harlow, started Moscow’s first P.T.A.

"In addition to his wife, of 66 years, Mr. Berman is survived by his sons Stephen, of Ashland, Ore., and John of São Paulo, Brazil; his daughters Jean Berman of Brooklyn, and Susanna Omac of Temecula, Calif., seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

"Mr. Berman had planned a third volume in his Law and Revolution series, and was even planning a fourth. Speaking to the Fulton County newspaper, he was philosophical about the prospects of finishing.

" ‘It’s up to God – if he wants to read it or not,’ he said."

God determines the hour and the occasion for our passing, and it is not for us to question His decisions.

We, nonetheless, must grieve at the death of Michael Billings, who at the age of 19, was an accomplished theologian, activist, and leader. A scholar in residence at my son, Doug’s Vision Forum, he helped train interns and was as much an expert on the writings of Dr. R. J. Rushdoony as any other living person.

The son of Dr. and Mrs. Michael Billings of Missouri, Michael impressed me from the moment I met him. All the way back in 1992 when he was a bit more than four years old, Michael, together with his parents, was on the streets collecting signatures for my Presidential candidacy as the nominee of the then U.S. Taxpayers Party.

Michael died on November 4 in a car accident as he was returning to San Antonio from a R. C. Sproul conference in Dallas, Texas. He died instantly when his spinal cord was badly injured after his Volkswagon Jetta was hit on the driver’s side by another vehicle legally doing 70 miles per hour. Michael was emerging from an intersection not far from Austin, Texas.

Many people were surprised that Pat Robertson gave his endorsement for the GOP nomination to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, despite Robertson’s expressed differences with the stands Giuliani has taken on such issues as abortions, sodomy, and gun control.

Some have speculated that Robertson simply wanted to be with the winner, but I believe there is another factor that played into Robertson’s thinking.

For years, Robertson has denounced Mormonism and made clear that he could not support a candidate of the Mormon faith.

Robertson’s support of Giuliani reflected his desire to block the nomination of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon, to head the Republican Presidential ticket.

Thomas J. Meskill, former governor of Connecticut who died on October 29 at the age of 79, was one of my best friends during his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives.

It was my regret that he accepted a Federal judgeship instead of seeking election to the U.S. Senate.

As reported in The Washington Post (10/30/07, p. B8), "Thomas J. Meskill, 79, a Connecticut Republican who overcame early political losses to become a respected congressman, governor and federal judge, died October 29 at Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, Fla., after a heart attack.

"Mr. Meskill was elected to Congress in 1966, representing the now-defunct 6^th District in northwestern Connecticut, which included New Britain, and served until 1970.

"He won the election for governor later that year and became the state’s 82^nd chief executive in January 1971, the first Republican to hold the office in 16 years.

"In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford named him a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2^nd Circuit, in New York. He served full time until 1993 and was chief judge in his last year. He retained senior judge status until his death, which allowed him to remain on the court and work on some cases.

"Mr. Meskill was mayor of New Britain, Conn., from 1962 to 1964. But 1964 turned out to be a bad year for Mr. Meskill, as he lost his mayoral reelection bid in the spring and the 6^th Congressional District race in the fall.

"When Mr. Meskill took office as governor, the state had a $260 million deficit. By 1973, the deficit had been erased and the state treasury had a surplus of $65 million. …

"Thomas Joseph Meskill was born in NeTan. 30, 1928. He was a 1950 graduate of Trinity College in Hartford 1956 graduate of the University of Connecticut Law School. He was an Air Force veteran of the Korean War.

"Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Mary Grady Meskill of Delray Beach, Fla.; and five children."