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This paper aims to further the classification discourse by examining the importance and function of taxonomical structures in private law. The paper begins by considering the extent to which it is possible to develop, establish and maintain a classificatory scheme that constitutes a genuine reflection of the law and more generally, the value in searching for such coherence in law. The discourse developed within the paper is based on an assumption that there is a significant need for taxonomy, both within and beyond the boundaries of national law. This paper will introduce some of the issues which are of particular relevance at both the national level, through a consideration of taxonomy and classification in the development of the civil and the common legal traditions, and the transnational level, through an analysis of the attempts to develop legal taxonomy within the context of European private law (examining in particular, the Draft Common Frame of Reference).

One of the most representative authors of modern analytical philosophy, T. D. Weldon, has pointed out recently how he and his English and American colleagues have come to realize that many of the problems which their predecessors found insuperable arise not from something mysterious or inexplicable in the world around them, but from the peculiarities of the language with which we try to describe the world itself. This Oxford philosopher remarks that many errors in political doctrine and in various branches of philosophy are caused by "carelessness over the implications of language." This carelessness, he goes on to say, is often due to the mistaken idea that words, and especially the words that normally recur in discussions on matters of political doctrine, have an intrinsic and essential meaning of their own, more or less in the same way as children have parents.

This article approaches the medieval law of theft from a 'functional' perspective. It seeks, that is, to consider the rules of law principally in relation to the social circumstances which give rise to them and upon which they, in turn, have an impact. Concentrating primarily upon material from England and Wales, the essay considers general issues of definition, jurisdiction and proof in the law of the middle ages before concentrating specifically upon the rules respecting theft. The ideas of manifest and non-manifest theft are explored in an attempt to discover why the law distinguished between them. Potential difficulties concerning the bringing of theft actions and the defences which might be offered to them are also examined and related to the practical world in which perpetrators and victims of theft found themselves. Finally, the possible tension between the satisfaction of the demands of the individual victim and the wider desire to maintain public order is investigated.