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Five Legal Revolutions Since the 17th Century pp 35–71Cite as

Codification and Law Reporting: A Revolution Through Systematisation?

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Part of the book series: Studies in the History of Law and Justice ((SHLJ,volume 1))

Abstract

With the development of comprehensive codifications in civil law countries, since the eighteenth century, it seems easy to identify a legal revolution. However, one has to be rigorous in the distinction between consolidated laws and codified ones, the Napoleonic codification being the ideal-type of this second scheme. The French situation is also the one of a parallel development of a published and rationalized case law, which has accompanied the process of implementing the codification. For this reason, the opposition with common law countries has to be nuanced. In Great Britain and in the United States, the nineteenth century was also the time for consolidating and systematizing precedents. In common law countries, as in civil law countries, the reform of the legal profession was developed “from above” to adapt the legal field to this new configuration. In one or two generations, it was another legal revolution.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Bellomo, Mario. 1995. The Common Legal Past of Europe 1000–1800. Trans. Lydia G. Cochrane. Washington: CUA Press, 32–33.

  2. 2.

    Concerning the reasons for considering the Law of XII Tables as a “code”: Humbert, Michel. 1998. Les XII Tables: une codification? Droits 27: 89–111.

  3. 3.

    Grossi, Paolo. 2010. A History of European Law. Trans. Laurence Hooper. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 85.

  4. 4.

    Weber, Max. 1978. Economy and Society. Trans. Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 856–866.

  5. 5.

    Quoted by Gagner, Sten. 1974. Die Wissenschaft des gemeinen Rechts und der Codex Maxilimianeus Bavaricus. In Wissenschaft und Kodifikation des Privatrechts im 19. Jahrhundert. Eds. Helmut Coing, Walter Wilhelm. Frankfurt a. M.: Klostermann, vol. I, 17.

  6. 6.

    Cartuyvels, Yves. 1996. D’où vient le code penal? Bruxelles: de Boeck, 49–57.

  7. 7.

    Wagner, Wolfgang. 1986. Das Schwedische Reichsgesetzbuch (Sveriges Rikes Lag) von 1734. Frankfurt a. M.: Klostermann.

  8. 8.

    Gagner, as n. 5, 2.

  9. 9.

    Schmidt, Eberhard. 1980. Beiträge zur Geschichte des preussischen Rechtsstaates. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 102, 187, 294.

  10. 10.

    Vierhaus, Rüdolf. 1995. Das Allgemeine Landrecht für die Preußisschen Staaten als Verfassungsersatz? In 200 Jahre Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preussischen Staaten, eds, Barbara Dölemeyer, Heinz Mohnhaupt. Frankfurt a. M.: Klostermann, 1–21.

  11. 11.

    Janicka, Danuta. Das Allgemeine Landrecht und Polen, in Dölemeyer, Mohnhaupt (eds.), n. 11, 446–447.

  12. 12.

    Bors, Marc. 1998. Bescholtene Frauen vor Gericht. Frankfurt a. M.: Klostermann about the 1854 law concerning actions of seduced women against the potential father of their child.

  13. 13.

    Halpérin, Jean-Louis. 1992. L’impossible Code civil. Paris: PUF.

  14. 14.

    Caroni, Pio. 1988. “Privatrecht”: Eine sozialhistorische Einführung. Basel- Frankfurt a. M.: Helbing & Lichtenhahn.

  15. 15.

    The Chinese Codes, generally elaborated at the beginning of a dynasty (for the Tang between 619 and 737, for the Song in 962, for the Ming in 1374, for the Qing in 1646, 1723–1727 and 1740), comprised a traditional nucleus (largely inherited from the Tang Code) and a bulk (more than one thousand under the Ming and Qing dynasties) of by-laws more adapted to the historical context; they consisted for the most part of a catalogue of offences: MacCormack, Geoffrey. 1990. Traditional Chinese Penal Law. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; McKnight, Brian E. 1992. Law and Order in Sung China. New York: Cambridge University Press.

  16. 16.

    Halpérin, Jean-Louis. 2005. Deux cents ans de rayonnement du Code civil des Français. Les Cahiers du Droit 46/1–2: 229–251.

  17. 17.

    Halpérin, Jean-Louis. 2011. La Transposición del Código Napoleónico a América Latina: ¿Un acto revolucionario?. In La Codificación: La Formación de los Sistemas Jurídicos en las Américas, eds. Héctor Fix-Zamudio, Diego Valadés, Jorge Sánchez Cordero. Mexico: El Colegio Nacional. 84–124.

  18. 18.

    Mirow, Matthew. 2004. Latin American Law. A History of Private Law and Institutions in Spanish America. Austin: University of Texas Press.

  19. 19.

    Schwennicke, Andreas. 1993. Die Entstehung der Einleitung des Preußischen Allgemeinen Landrechts von 1794. Frankfurt a. M.: Klostermann, 62–63.

  20. 20.

    Halpérin, Jean-Louis. 1989. Le Tribunal de cassation et la naissance de la jurisprudence moderne. In Une autre justice, ed. Robert Badinter, 226. Paris: Fayard.

  21. 21.

    Mavidal, J. and Laurent, E. Archives parlementaires, 1 re série, vol. XX, 517.

  22. 22.

    Halpérin Jean-Louis. 1987. Le Tribunal de cassation et les pouvoirs sous la Révolution (1790–1799). Paris: LGDJ, 157, 162, 174 and 184 (about six decisions of the legislation comity of the Convention quashing judgments from the Tribunal de cassation).

  23. 23.

    This break does not prevent us from perceiving (as I have said in the previous chapters) some forerunners of this conception of the jurisprudence in the members of the royal public ministry who have defended the “interest of the law” in their pleadings before the Parlements.

  24. 24.

    This style was also a creation of the Tribunal de cassation which imposed its ways of writing judgments on the whole judiciary.

  25. 25.

    Halpérin, Jean-Louis. 2006. La place de la jurisprudence dans les revues juridiques en France au XIXe siècle. In Juristische Zeitschriften in Europa, ed. Michael Stolleis, Thomas Simon. Frankfurt a. M.: Klostermann, 369–383.

  26. 26.

    Bigot, Grégoire. 2002. Introduction historique au droit administratif depuis 1789. Paris: PUF, 16.

  27. 27.

    Alpa, Guido. 2000. La Cultura delle regole. Storia del diritto civile italiano. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 443.

  28. 28.

    Petit, Carlos. 1995. Il ‘codice” inesistente. Per una storia concettuale della cultura giuridica nella Spagna del XIX secolo. In Saperi della borgehesia e storia dei concetti fra Otto et Novecento, eds. Raffaella Gherardi, Gistuva Gozzi. Bologna: il Mulino, 179–224.

  29. 29.

    McDonagh, Oliver. 1977. Early Victorian Government. London: Marfarlane, 138.

  30. 30.

    Cook, Charles. M. 1981. The American Codification Movement: A Study of Antebellum Legal Reform. Westport: Greenwood Press.

  31. 31.

    For one example, Morriss, Andrew P., Burnham, Scott J., Nelson, James C. 2000. Debating the Field Civil Code 105 Years Later. Montana Law Review 61: 371- 405.

  32. 32.

    Bryan, Michael. 2009. Early English Law Reporting. University of Melbourne Collections 4: 45–50.

  33. 33.

    Dawson, John P. 1968. The Oracles of the Law. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan School of Law, 78.

  34. 34.

    Lobban, Michael. 1991. The Common Law and English Jurisprudence 1760–1850. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 122, 242–243.

  35. 35.

    Duxburry, Neil, 2008. The Nature and Authority of Precedent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 55.

  36. 36.

    Cross, Rupert. 1977. Precedent in English Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 109.

  37. 37.

    Hedley, Steve. 1995. Words, Words, Words: Making Sense of Legal Judgments, 1875–1940. In Law Reporting in Britain, eds. Chantal Stebbings. London and Rio Grande: Hambledon Press, 169–186.

  38. 38.

    Macgill, Hugh C. and Newmyer, R. Kent. 2008. Legal Education and Legal Thought 1790–1920. In The Cambridge History of Law in America, eds. Michael Grossberg, Christopher Tomlins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 43.

  39. 39.

    Konefsky, Alfred S. 2008. The Legal Profession: from the Revolution to the Civil War. In Grossbeg, Tomlins, as n. 38, 99.

  40. 40.

    Siegrist, Hannes. 1996. Advokat, Bürger und Staat. Sozialgeschichte der Rechtsanwälte in Deutschland, Italien and Schweiz (18–20. Jh.). Frankfurt a. M.: Klostermann, 398–406 concerning these reforms directed by the State, but increasing the autonomy of the lawyers in comparison with the previous situation.

  41. 41.

    Schulte-Nölke, Hans. 1995. Das Reichsjustizamt und die Entstehung des BGBs. Frankfurt a. M.: Klostermann.

  42. 42.

    Abel, Richard L. 1988. The Legal Profession in England and in Wales. Oxford: Blackwell, 142–160.

  43. 43.

    Duman, Daniel. 1983. The English and Colonial Bars in the nineteenth Century. London: Croom Helm, 58–59.

  44. 44.

    Duman, as n. 43, 182.

  45. 45.

    Woodhouse, Diana. 2001. The Office of Lord Chancellor. Oxford: Hart. 139.

  46. 46.

    Cross, as n. 36,109.

  47. 47.

    Duman, Daniel. 1982. The Judicial Bench in England 1727–1875: The Reshaping of a Professional Elite. London: Royal Historical Society.

  48. 48.

    Cross n 47, 166.

  49. 49.

    Macgill and Newmyer, as n. 38, 37–49.

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  1. Department of Social Sciences, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

    Jean-Louis Halpérin

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Halpérin, JL. (2014). Codification and Law Reporting: A Revolution Through Systematisation?. In: Five Legal Revolutions Since the 17th Century. Studies in the History of Law and Justice, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05888-7_2

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