Ellul would say the revolution in law was apiece with a larger revolution of technique in all spheres of human life. From The Technological Society, "From the judicial point of view, the technical revolution entailed the great systematization of law in the Napoleonic codes and the definitive suppression of spontaneous sources of law; for example, custom. It involved the unification of legal institutions under the iron rule of the state and the submission of law to policy. And throughout Europe, except in Great Britain, the nations, amazed by such an efficient operation, abandoned their traditional judicial systems in favor of the state."
He offers a bit more of a causal mechanism, and shares your deep skepticism of the project (though I think his might be more accurately called righteous disgust)
Ellul would say the revolution in law was apiece with a larger revolution of technique in all spheres of human life. From The Technological Society, "From the judicial point of view, the technical revolution entailed the great systematization of law in the Napoleonic codes and the definitive suppression of spontaneous sources of law; for example, custom. It involved the unification of legal institutions under the iron rule of the state and the submission of law to policy. And throughout Europe, except in Great Britain, the nations, amazed by such an efficient operation, abandoned their traditional judicial systems in favor of the state."
He offers a bit more of a causal mechanism, and shares your deep skepticism of the project (though I think his might be more accurately called righteous disgust)