几年前我曾提到过,翻译梅特兰作品的决定不能过于轻率地作出。其中的部分原因在于他的语言风格:如果没有足够好的中英文功底,很难将他的文字顺畅地转换过来。但今天,我自己却先(当然,截至2009年8月,关于梅特兰的作品已经有了一些或应该是不少的翻译)违背了自己的这一主张。这倒不是因为几年后我认为自己功力大增,以至堪当此任,而是一些其他方面的原因促成了本书的翻译和出版。翻译此书当然是因为它的价值。那么它的价值究竟何在?首先让我们来重温本书编者菲舍尔教授在解释为什么要出版这一梅特兰自己并不准备出版的讲义时所提出的理由:首先,“它显示了梅特兰不仅是一位思想精深的法律大家,而且还能极其高明地使得知识大众化”;其次,“这些讲义包含了一些梅特兰在其后来的作品中没有机会表述但却不能为我们所舍弃的、新的、原创性观点”;再次,本书为我们 As I mentioned a few years ago, the decision to translate Maitland’s work can not be made too hasty. Part of the reason for this is his language style: Without enough good Chinese and English skills, it’s hard to translate his text smoothly. Today, however, I myself (and, of course, as of August 2009, some or should have been quite a few translations of Maitland’s work) violated my claim. This is not because a few years later I think that my skill level soared to the point of being able to do this, but a few other reasons contributed to the book’s translation and publication. Of course, this book is translated because of its value. So what is its value? First, let us revisit the book’s editor Fischer’s explanation of why publishing this handout that Maitland himself did not intend to publish: First, “it shows that Mettler Lan is not only a well-minded lawyer, but also makes knowledge extremely popular. ”Secondly,“ these lectures include some that Maitland had no chance to express in his later works but did not give us Discarded, new, original ideas ”; Again, the book for us