200 Years of Codification in Louisiana

The LSU International Law Society and the Center of Civil Law Studies are presenting a program to commemorate the bicentennial of the Digest of 1808. The program will take place on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 from 12:40 p.m. to 1:40 p.m in Room 110 of the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at LSU. The speakers for the program will be Prof. Olivier Moréteau, Agustín Parise, and Vicenç Feliú. Prof. Moréteau will speak on Disseminating the Louisiana Experience: The Digest Online, Agustín Parise will speak on Exploring the World Wide Impact of the Louisiana Civil Codes, and Vicenç Feliú will speak on Discovering the Roots of the Digest of 1808.

Read more!

CLE - The Digest of 1808

The Law Library of Louisiana and the New Orleans Association of Law Libraries are sponsoring a CLE program to be held in the 4th Floor Conference Room of the Louisiana Supreme Court, 400 Royal Street, New Orleans, on Wednesday, 15 October, 2008, from 5:30 p.. until 6:30 p.m. The program will be a one hour CLE credit at no cost to LSBA members. It will be a presentation by Professor Alain Levasseur, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, LSU, and Vicenç Feliú, Associate Librarian for Foreign, Comparative, and Internatinal Law, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, LSU, discussing their new book; Moreau Lislet: The Man Behind the Digest of 1808. There will be a book signing and a wine and cheese reception directly after the presentation. RSVP to Georgia Chadwick, Director Law Library of Louisiana, at gchadwick@lasc.org or (504) 310-2402.



Georgia Chadwick, Director Law Library of Louisiana, Professor Alain Levasseur, LSU Law, Chief Justice Elect Kitty Kimball, Louisiana Supreme Court, and Vicenç Feliú, LSU Law, at the book signing held after the CLE.

Read more!

Digest of 1808 Online

On the occasion of the Bicentennial of the Louisiana Digest of 1808, The Louisiana State University, Paul M. Hebert Law Center’s Center for Civil Law Studies has published an electronic version of the Digest of the Civil Laws now in Force in the Territory of Orleans (enacted on March 31, 1808) on its Civil Law Online website at http://www.law.lsu.edu/civillawonline.

The Digest, described as the first Louisiana civil code, is now completely available online. The original French and the English translation can be viewed separately or together on the same screen. The typing of both versions was extracted from the first edition of 1808, printed by Bradford & Anderson, in the city of New Orleans. With the exception of obvious typos, the Digest Online strictly follows the original wording and orthography.

In addition, the manuscript notes of 1814, attributed to Louis Moreau-Lislet who, with James Brown, drafted the Digest, are available on this website. These notes are extracted from the De la Vergne Volume, a copy of the Digest bound in 1808 with interleaves between the English text on the left and the French text on the right. The manuscript notes on the interleaves give reference mainly to Roman and Spanish laws, but also mention French sources, such as Domat and Pothier (see the Foreword). This volume belonged to the de la Vergne family for generations, and is presently in possession of Mr. Louis V. de la Vergne. It was published by the LSU and Tulane law schools in 1968, and by Claitor's in 1971 and 2008. The right to reproduce the notes was generously provided to the Center of Civil Law Studies at LSU by Mr. Louis V. de la Vergne. The notes also appear for the first time in typed version, making them easily readable.

A search function will be added in the near future. It will allow thematic research, by word or combination of words, inside the French or the English version.

The Digest is freely available to scholars, students, practitioners, and laymen alike. The photographic reproduction of the manuscript notes may only be used for research or educational purposes. Please email ccls@law.lsu.edu for any question relating to the use of these documents.

Read more!

Bicentennial of the Louisiana Digest of 1808

(From the Center of Civil Law Studies, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Newsletter, January 2008, No. 5)

In 2008, the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center commemorates the Bicentennial of the Louisiana Civil Code, marking the confirmed survival of the civil law in Louisiana after the 1803 Purchase. This was the first civil code, anywhere in the world, to be drafted in the wake of the Napoleonic codification. It still has a significant influence not only in the United States but also in Quebec, Latin America, and Spain.

The Civil Code of 1808 will be published online in May 2008, both in the original French and English translation, with the notes made by the drafters at the time. An added search function will make it an easily researchable source. The Code will be accessible to scholars, students, practitioners, and laymen alike, all over the world, whether their interest is law or culture in all its possible dimensions.

The unveiling of this historic project will occur during the Journées Capitant on Law and Culture, to take place in Baton Rouge and New Orleans from May 18^th through May 23^rd. This conference will be held in French by the Association Capitant des amis de la culture juridique française, and will attract more than one hundred participants from French speaking countries all around the world. Support has been obtained both for the publication of the Louisiana Civil Code online and the organization of the events from the Organisation internationale de la francophonie, and the World Organization of French Speaking Countries. The Consulate of France in New Orleans and the Ministry of Cooperation in Paris are also monitoring the event.

Read more!

UN Treaty Series Access

The UN Treaty Series Collection (UNTC) online is now be accessible without subscription. The UNTC homepage now offers access to all the databases via a single generic username/password.

Username: treaties
Password: 12345

This collection includes the following categories of treaty-related data:

* Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General

* Depositary Notifications (CNs) by the Secretary-General

* Certified True Copies (CTCs) of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General

* The United Nations Treaty Series

* The League of Nations Treaty Series

* Texts of Recently Deposited Multilateral Treaties

* Photographs of Treaty Signature Ceremonies

* Titles of the Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General in the UN

official languages

* Summary of Practice of the Secretary-General as Depositary of Multilateral Treaties

* Treaty Handbook

* Handbook of Final Clauses

* Monthly Statements of Treaties and International Agreements

* United Nations Treaty Series Cumulative Index

* Notes verbales from The Legal Counsel relating to the depositary practice and the registration of treaties pursuant to Article 102 of the Charter

Read more!

New URL for Legifrance Civil Code Site

Legifrance has a new URL for the official English translation of the French Code Civil. The Spanish translation of the Code Civil is also available from this site.

Read more!

The Roman Law Library

This amazing website, sponsored by the Université Pierre-Mendès-France in Grenoble, contains a vast collection of Roman Law, ranging from the Senatus Consulta to the Leges Romanae Barbarorum, in the original Latin. In addition, it contains translations of these resources in English, French, and Spanish. This is a complete collection of the source materials of the Civil Law.

Read more!

The Annotated Justinian Code

The Annotated Justinian Code website, put together by Tim Kearley, Director of the George W. Hopper Law Library at the University of Wyoming, contains PDFs of Justice Fred Blume’s copiously annotated (4,500+ pages) English translation of Justinian’s Code—the only English translation made from the Latin version regarded as most authoritative. (Scott’s heavily criticized translation was made from another Latin version.)

The site also contains: Blume’s scanned translation of the Novels; his 100+ page “The Code of Justinian, and it’s Value”—an address he delivered part of to the Riccobono Society in 1938 but which has never been published; and a few other Blume-related items.

Read more!