Law of France
The law in France is the sum judicially enforceable social norms in France.
- 2.1 Constitutional Law
- 2.2 Organisation of justice
- 2.3 Civil Litigation
- 2.4 Administrative Law
- 4.1 Property Law
- 4.2 Law of Obligations
- 4.3 Private International Law
- 4.4 Labour
Legal History
The Ancien Droit
Even after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Roman law was in southern Gaul big impact. Until the 12th century, the Lex Romana Visigothorum constitutes one of the main source of law. Your Roman legal content mingled over time - even from ignorance of Roman law - with local rights to vulgar. For the Germanic conquerors strains the respective Germanic folk law was instrumental to the Carolingians after the personality principle, sometimes in the form of written records (lex salica, lex Ripuaria ). From the 12th century a relatively clear line of demarcation at the level of the Loire was formed out: In the south was largely the resultant from Roman law droit écrit, in the north of the based on the Germanic customary law droit coutumier. This fragmentation lasted until 1789.
The 13th century is characterized by a scientific nature of law. On the establishment of the University of Paris a more intensive academic penetration of Roman law was followed in the form of Justinian's law; to speak of a true reception of Roman law, such as in Germany, there was still missed. In the 15th century Charles VII drove from 1454 written fixation of the droit coutumier progress until the late 16th century, this process of textualization for the grandes coutumes was completed: coutume de Paris ( 1510-1580 ), you coutume duché de Bourgogne ( 1459-1576), coutume de Bretagne (1539-1580), coutume d' Orléans ( 1509-1583 ). Thus, the ground for the coutume science of the 16th century was prepared, as its most prominent representative Charles Dumoulin ( Molinaeus ) and Bertrand d' Argentré be mentioned. Of similar rank are the representatives of Elegant jurisprudence Cujacius and Donellus for the workup of Roman law.
With the intensified centralization under Louis XIV and Louis XV. went in the 17th and 18th centuries also a politically motivated legal harmonization by the royal ordonnances accompanied: 1667 fared the ordonnance civile on the reform of civil procedure; Colbert was under the ordonnance pour le commerce and the ordonnance de la marine, under d' Aguesseau ordonnances on donations, wills and entails adopted. In the sphere of jurisprudence Antoine Loysel collection of legal maxims in the Institute coutumières, Jean Domats Les Loix dans leur ordre naturel civiles and Robert -Joseph Pothier 's Traité des obligations are emphasized.
The codifications
During the French Revolution first came to the idea to counteract the fragmentation of the law by codification. The announcement in the constitution of 1791 was followed by three draft Cambacérès, all of which were not realized. Only with the consolidation of the political conditions under Napoléon, the project was implemented: As First Consul he ordered on August 13, 1800, a commission consisting of Tronchet, Male Ville, Bigot de Préameneu and Portalis that could present a first draft after only four months. After a revision phase in the Conseil d' État, which Napoleon presided personally, the Code civil des Français entered into force on 21 March 1804.
The Civil Code, further codifications joined: 1806, Code of Civil Procedure, 1807, the Code de Commerce, 1808, the Code de l'instruction criminelle and 1810 of the Penal Code. Despite numerous innovations and reforms to the long-term impact of the Napoleonic legislation can hardly be underestimated. Only public law defies in France until today largely the codification - recently come from the Code de la justice administrative, of the Code de l' environnement and the Code de la santé publique.
Especially introduced in the acquired territories gained civil code international standing of the interplay of Napoleonic conquests and colonization. Even where it did not apply ratione imperii, he was often rezipiert voluntarily and was about - imperio rationis - in large parts of Germany until the entry into force of the German Civil Code on 1 January 1900.