The Yellow Shoe Civil Law Blog

Update to University of Wyoming Novels of Justinian Site

2010-01-25T14:45:00.004-06:00

The University of Wyoming Law Library has posted re-scanned versions of Justice Blume’s English translation of Justinian’s Novels in their Annotated Justinian Code web site.

This new edition is much more legible than the first, which was scanned at very low resolution. The new edition has been edited so that all the chapters in each novel are now in their proper order.

In addition, the following material has been added to the website: 1) one table showing Code provisions affected by the novels; 2) another table, by novel, showing the Code provision it affects; 3) a Novel’s timeline; and 4) an article (which is to be published in this summer’s Law Library Journal) entitled “The Creation and Transmission of Justinian’s Novels.”

This is a great effort making the Novels and Justice Blume's materials available online.

The English Fox in the Louisiana Civil Law Chausse- Trappe

2009-07-09T12:12:00.004-05:00

The Louisiana Law Review has published The English Fox in the Louisiana Civil Law Chausse- Trappe: Civil Law Concepts in the English Language; Comparativists Beware!, 69 La Law Rev 715 (Summer 2009), an article, presented in the La. Law Rev. in English, based on an article by Professor Alain Levasseur, published in French in the January 2009 issue of the Revue Internationale de Droit Comparé (R.I.D.C.). The title of the Article in the R.I.D.C. is Les maux des mots en droit comparé. Professor Levasseur felt that this Article would be of interest to Louisiana lawyers and legal scholars and he asked Vicenç Feliú, because of Vicenç' background in Linguistics and the common law, to work with him in translating and redacting the original French article for publication in English.

The Future of the Yellow Shoe Civil Law Blog

2009-07-09T12:02:00.004-05:00

Last month I accepted a new job as the Director of the Law Library and assistant professor of law at the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law. As can be expected, my duties there have very little to do with the civil law. However, I intend to keep this blog active as an archive of civil law resources and I intend to add to it as I will continue to maintain my personal interest in the civil law. Thank you all for following this modest effort and I hope that you continue to support it as I will. Best wishes to all!

Vicenç Feliú, JD, LLM, MLIS
Director of the Law Library
& Assistant Professor of Law
University of the District of Columbia
David A. Clarke School of Law
Charles M. & Hilda H. M. Mason Law Library
4200 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
(Phone) 202 274-7354
(Fax) 202 274-7311
vfeliu@udc.edu

50 Best Blogs for Law Librarians

2009-05-19T08:18:00.003-05:00

Online University Lowdown has published a list of 50 Best Blogs for Law Librarians and The Yellow Shoe Civil Law Blog is on the list!

Finding German Law in English

2009-04-27T08:57:00.006-05:00

The Centre for German Legal Information (CGerLI) is a website offering a comprehensive and freely accessible database of electronic materials on German law. It brings together English translations of court decisions, legislation, articles and other law-related documents scattered over the internet and adds them to their own collection of German legal information.

As the database is being continuously expanded, they welcome contributions and suggestions. Please send your comments or new materials via email to new(at)cgerli.org.

This website was made possible with the support and cooperation of the German Federal Foreign Office.

Videos of Civil Law Workshop Series

2009-03-24T10:15:00.004-06:00

The Paul M. Hebert Law Center Civil Law Workshop Series successfully held its two first sessions during the Spring of 2009. The general topic of the Series is Civil Law and Common Law: Cross-Influences, Contamination and Permeability. These first two sessions, Towards a Revival of the Case Method in Civil Law Education and The Vienna Sales Convention (CISG) between Civil and Common Law - Best of all Worlds?, are now available on video on the web. Click on the name of the session you wish to see and you will be directed to it.

Third Session of the CCLS Civil Law Workshop

2009-03-18T15:14:00.004-06:00

The Center of Civil Law Studies at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center presents the third session of the 2009 Civil Law Workshop series: “Civil law and Common Law: Cross-Influences, Contamination, and Permeability.” Professor Sheldon Leader, University of Essex and Distinguished Global Visitor to the LSU Law Center will speak on "Legal Theory and the Variety of Legal Cultures: The Example of Dworkin" This Session will take place on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 between 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. in the LSU Law Center's Tucker Room. Don't miss it.

Second Session of the CCLS Civil Law Workshop

2009-02-25T13:56:00.004-06:00

The Center of Civil Law Studies at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center presents the second session of the 2009 Civil Law Workshop series: “Civil law and Common Law: Cross-Influences, Contamination, and Permeability.” Professor Ulrich Magnus, University of Hamburg and Distinguished Global Visitor to the LSU Law Center will speak on "The Vienna Sales Convention (CISG) between Civil and Common Law–Best of all Worlds?" This Session will take place on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 between 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. in the LSU Law Center's Tucker Room. Don't miss it.

Opening Session for Civil Law Workshops 2009 Edition,

2009-01-27T14:29:00.002-06:00

The LSU Center of Civil Law Studies, Civil Law Workshop series will be putting on a continuing workshop series titled: “Civil law and Common Law: Cross-Influences, Contamination, and Permeability.” The inaugural session of this series, "Towards a Revival of the Case Method in Civil Law Education" by Professor Fernando Toller, Distinguished Global Visitor, LSU Law Center, Austral University, Buenos Aires, Argentina will take place on Thursday, 12 February, 2009, from 16:30 until 18:00 in the Tucker Room of the LSU Law Center.

Updated Annotated Justinian Code Website

2009-01-26T11:20:00.007-06:00

Tim Kearley, Director of the Law Library at the University of Wyoming College of Law has posted a second edition of their Annotated Justinian Code website. The website looks the same as before, but the contents of nearly every element have been revised.

The introduction to the second edition explains the changes. Suffice it here to say that the most important changes are additions and corrections to the transcription of the Code translation itself. In particular, Tim has added the rest of the marginal notes Justice Blume had made in his manuscript but that were omitted from the first edition due to time pressures. Many of these were question marks or brief comments indicating an uncertainty about his translation. Whenever these occurred, S. P. Scott's translation of the passage have been added for purposes of comparison.

There is also a link to the first edition of the Annotated Justinian Code in order that it not go "out of print," as it were; thus, it remains available for reference and comparison.

200 Years of Codification in Louisiana

2008-10-15T09:55:00.003-05:00

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.

CLE - The Digest of 1808

2008-10-14T10:02:00.012-05:00

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.

Digest of 1808 Online

2008-06-18T10:34:00.005-05:00

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.

Bicentennial of the Louisiana Digest of 1808

2008-01-30T13:20:00.000-06:00

(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.

UN Treaty Series Access

2008-01-29T15:34:00.000-06:00

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

New URL for Legifrance Civil Code Site

2008-01-23T16:22:00.000-06:00

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.

The Roman Law Library

2008-01-08T13:06:00.001-06:00

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.

The Annotated Justinian Code

2008-01-08T12:22:00.000-06:00

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.

WIPO Hosts Highlevel IP Forum for LDCs

2007-12-12T07:55:00.000-06:00

(This doesn't address Civil Law but my other interest, IP)

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presented a high-level forum on December 12, 2007 with the intent of exploring possibilities to enhancing capacity in the field of intellectual property (IP) as a strategic policy approach to utilizing the IP system for alleviating poverty and promoting wealth creation in least developed countries (LDCs). The forum provided an opportunity for ministers, senior policy-makers and Geneva-based diplomats from LDCs to exchange views and gain insights regarding IP capacity building measures for the use and management of the IP system... It also focused on exploring practical solutions to questions about how the IP system can be developed to serve as a policy tool for economic growth in LDCs.

Ministers from a number of LDCs held a special plenary session on the theme: “Building IP Capacity and a Knowledge Base for Wealth Creation, Social and Cultural Development”. The plenary session was followed by a series of presentations by international experts on a range of topics, including the use of the patent system for technology development and transfer; strengthening business identifiers to facilitate the commercialization of products and services generated by LDCs; the role of copyright and related rights and collective management societies as a contributor of economic growth; recent international developments in the area of IP and traditional knowledge, genetic resources and expressions of folklore; the role of higher education and research and development institutions in LDCs as catalysts of national innovation; and building capacity in all relevant areas of IP in accordance with national development plans. The program is available at: http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/mdocs/en/wipo_ip_ldc_ge_07/wipo_ip_ldc_ge_07_inf_1_prov_3.doc

Books 1 & 2 of the BGB

2007-10-18T17:06:00.000-05:00

The German Ministry of Justice has reposted books 1 & 2 of the BGB in English to their site after almost a year from the withdrawl of the English translation. You can find the new translation of books 1 & 2 here.

Legal Conference Blog

2007-08-10T12:07:00.000-05:00

The Gallagher Law Library at the UW School of Law is sponsoring a blog tracking legal conferences throughout the world. This blog is an excellent place to keep track of upcoming conferences. Please, take a look at it: http://depts.washington.edu/lawref/confblog/

Digitized Civil Law Materials

2007-07-24T16:20:00.000-05:00

These are three collections of digitized legal and civil law original resources available on the web.

The Junta de Andalucia ,through their Cultural Chamber, has a virtual library (biblioteca virtual not the librería virtual, which is the virtual bookstore) with a collection of digitized original legal materials going back to the XVI cent.

The Universidad de Sevilla through their main library has a collection of digitized original materials which contains a several legal and civil law sources.

Finally, the Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Sevilla has the PixeLegis project which is dedicated to digitizing legal and civil law materials from the XIX cent.

These three different projects for digitized materials make access to original resources easier for the researcher. Enjoy your search!

Lois Françaises en Anglais

2007-07-09T11:55:00.000-05:00

Here's a great resource for French law in English. French-Law Net, http://french-law.net/, is edited by Nicolas Jondet, a lawyer and Ph.D. candidate in copyright law at the University of Edinburgh School of Law. This blog "provides news updates in English on recent developments in French Law, focusing on Intellectual Property, Technology and Medical Law."

With thanks to Mary Whisner, the official goddess of Reference, who tipped me off to this great resource. Check out her blogs at: http://www.blogger.com/profile/06780343632178750011

Cornell Law School Collaborates with French Cour de Cassation

2007-05-10T09:32:00.000-05:00

Cornell Law School is establishing a Center for Documentation on American Law at the French Cour de Cassation in Paris. The Cornell Law Library is shipping 13,000 volumes to the French Court, and offering electronic research assistance. The Center will be dedicated before an audience of the world's leading jurists at a groundbreaking international judicial conference set to take place in Paris July 17, 2007...
The venture, which has been supported by the Court's First President, Guy Canivet, (who was subsequently promoted to the Conseil Constitutionnel), will enable the French judiciary to better familiarize themselves with American law and will lead to enhanced dialogue between judges and academics of the two countries. Read the original annoucement of this venture at the Cornell Law School's webpage here.

PBwiki Ad Free to Educators

2007-04-20T12:56:00.000-05:00

This is not really Civil Law related, but PBwiki, http://www.pbwiki.com, is the tool that I use for the Civil Law Dictionary Project and the LSU Reference Manual. This is a very useful tool for legal reference, incredibly easy to use and set up and cleaner now that they have removed the ads from educational wikis. If you would like to know how to use this tool, please, feel free to contact me.

Second Worldwide Congress on Mixed Jurisdictions

2007-04-18T12:46:00.000-05:00

The Second Worldwide Congress on Mixed Jurisdictions, will take place on June 27-30, 2007, at the University of Edinburgh School of Law. The conference is titled The Boundaries of Unity: Mixed Systems in Action and it will consist of a series of meetings and lectures on the different aspects of Mixed Jurisdictions.

The program for the conference (and registration information) is availabe at the World Society of Mixed Jurisdictions Jurists page of the University of Edinburgh's site: http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/conferences/wsmjj/

Louisiana Civil Code Translated to Cantonese

2007-04-16T13:35:00.000-05:00

Chinese legal scholar Lou Aihua has completed a translation of the Louisiana Civil Code to Cantonese. This translation will soon be available in print and the LSU Law Library will acquire a copy for its collection. If you are interested in this translation, you may contact the translator directly at aihua905warm@gmail.com.

GLIN Available Through WorldLII

2007-04-16T13:06:00.000-05:00

The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) of the United States Law Library of Congress is now searchable through the World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII). GLIN is a public database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations. GLIN members contribute the official full texts of published documents to the database in their original language. Each document is accompanied by a summary in English.

GLIN Abstracts contains databases from 40 countries: Angola, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Kuwait, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Tunisia, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Approximately half of the almost 140,000 abstracts in GLIN provide links to the full texts of the legislation, court decisions and other abstracted documents.

The Catala Working Group on the Reform of French Law of Obligations

2007-03-24T09:13:00.000-06:00

The Catala Working Group is a group of scholars sponsored by the Association Henri Capitant and headed by Professor Emiritus Pierre Catala which has undertaken the reform of Title III of Book III of the French Civil Code (Of Contracts and Conventional Obligations in General). This working group of approximately 34 law professors produced a revision of the law of obligations (articles 1101 to 1386 of the Civl Code) and prescription (articles 2234 to 2281 of the Civil Code) which has been officially presented to the French government. The original text of the revisions, in French, is available here, as well as the translations in English (by LSU’s Professor Alain Levasseur), Spanish (by Chancellor Fernando Hinestrosa), Italian and German (by Professor Hans. J. Sonnenberger).

The Big German Book (BGB) - in English

2007-03-13T11:25:00.000-06:00

A while back, the German Ministry of Justice put out an official translation in English of the German Civil Code based on the version promulgated on 02 Jan. 2002. They pulled this translation from the net shortly after publishing due to flaws in the translation (click here for the Ministry's translation page). I thought it was gone forever but I was able to find that the University of Edinburgh School of Law has a copy of the translation posted here. While it is not an "official" translation it can at least help researchers unfamiliar with German.

ALEX - The Austrian Law Digitization Project

2007-03-12T08:37:00.000-06:00

ALEX is the Austrian National Library's ongoing project of digitization of Austrian legal materials. This project's database consists of pdf files of historical Austrian legal materials in some cases going as far back as the XVIII century. Since these are scans of the original documents, all the materials are in German and there are not any translations contained in the database. However, this will be a great resource to any researcher working in Austrian law.

Foreign Law Translations - France, Germany, Israel & Austria

2007-03-06T16:10:00.000-06:00

The University of Texas at Austin School of Law has a site at the Institute of Trasnational Law dedicated to provide translations of French, German, Israeli, and Austrian materials. The French and German sites are subdivided into legislation and decision areas while the Israeli and Austrian sites only hold decisions... While the German site has many dead links, it still provides acces to translated sections of the German Civil Code, the official site for which was recently pulled because of translation problems. For a more comprehensive collection of translated German materials, check the German Law Archive. This Archive was started by the University of Oxford and it is presently on its own domain, iuscomp.org, which also hosts the Oxford University Comparative Law Forum and the website of the Institute of European and Comparative Law of the University of Oxford.

Civil Law Dictionary Wiki

2007-03-03T13:03:00.000-06:00

I have begun a Civil Law Dictonary Wiki Project in which I hope to include Civil Law/Common Law glossaries listing and defining those Civil Law terms unfamiliar to Common Law practitioners. This wiki is intended to be a collaborative project in which anyone can contribute. It is indented to be a work in progress to which users can add material or edit the entries already there. If you would like to participate, please, contact me at vicenc.feliu@law.lsu.edu for access to the project.

Thanks in advance for your collaboration.

Jurispedia

2007-02-21T19:41:00.000-06:00

JurisPedia is an encyclopaedic project of academic initiative devoted to worldwide law, legal and political sciences. Jurispedia was developed on the initiative of the Équipe de Recherche Informatique et Droit (Faculty of Law of the University of Montpellier I), the Faculty of law of the Can Tho University, the Faculty of law of the Groningen University, the team of JURIS (Université du Québec À Montreal), and the Institute for Law and Informatics (Saarland University)... The project is open for cooperation with other partners and is based on a Wikipedia format with contributions from users. It contains access points for many items of interest for FCIL researchers.

The Supreme Court, Justinian, and Antonin Scalia

2007-02-13T09:42:00.001-06:00

My dear friend and colleague Prof. Paul Baier, George M. Armstrong, Jr. Professor of Law, has published an article that will appear in Issue 2 of Volume 67 of the Louisiana Law Review entitled The Supreme Court, Justinian, and Antonin Scalia: Twenty Years in Retrospect… In this article he gives a wonderful and colorful brief history of the development of the Civil Law from the times of the great Roman jurists that is a must read for Civilians everywhere. Enjoy it here first at www.law.lsu.edu/globals/pdfs/misc/BaierJustinianAndScaliaArticle.pdf

Next Civil Law Workshop - Legal Status of Embryos

2007-02-09T14:58:00.000-06:00

The Center of Civil Law Studies will be presenting the next lecture on the series "Revisiting the Distinction between Persons and Things"... on Tuesday, March 20th, 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. at the LSU Law Center's Tucker Room. The topic of the lecture will be "Human Embryo, Animal Embryo, Chimerical Embryo: What Legal Status?" and it will be presented by Dr. Laurence Brunet and Dr. Sonia Desmoulin, Centre de Recherche en Droit des Sciences et de Techniques, Univeristé Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne.

Civil Law Workshop: Heirs of the Body

2007-02-09T14:28:00.000-06:00

Professor Gruning, Loyola University School of Law (New Orleans), presented some interesting questions on the current state of the Civil Law in relation to the legal status of the body as goods or things... According to Prof. Gruning, Civil Law does not state what rights a person has on his own living body; what rights does that same person have on his own body after his death; what are the rights of person's heir on the body; and what are the rights of others of that person's choosing on the body. Presently, the law prohibits trafficking on organs, tissue, bone fragments, and in some instances blood. Yet in certain cases the law also acts as if there were some property interests of the person on his body but fails to identify what those interests are. Prof. Gruning suggests a that the Civil Law could handle a private law principle in which the person has a property interest in his body yet where trafficking on body parts would be prohibited by placing body parts out of commerce.

The workshop was excellent and the discussion after the presentation was informative and spirited. There were different approaches to solutions for Prof. Gruning's questions but it was clear that this is an issue clearly solvable by the mechanisms present in the Civil Law.

Civil Law Resources for Spain and Latin America

2007-02-02T11:36:00.000-06:00

The Universitat de Girona has a Civil Law page on their website with access to Catalan Civil Legislation and Spanish Civil Legislation in Catalan and Spanish. The site also features a Pàgina Jurídica that has a collection of Latin American law resources.

Announcement from the Anglo-American Legal Tradition Project

2007-02-02T09:13:00.000-06:00

The O’Quinn Law Library at the University of Houston Law Center is proud to announce the inauguration of the extraordinary new website, the Anglo-American Legal Tradition – AALT.

The AALT is the result of over fifteen years of negotiation with the National Archives of the United Kingdom by Robert C. Palmer, Cullen Professor of History and Law at the University of Houston... The license with the National Archives permits the free, non-commercial, public display and use of the images captured by Professor Palmer’s ongoing project to acquire images of the main categories of court records over almost four centuries (c.1272 – 1650); at this point, some 450,000 images have been acquired. Access to these documents was previously possible only through use of the original documents at the National Archives itself.

The AALT will be a great boon to the far-flung scholars of Anglo-American legal history. In order to facilitate use of these ancient documents Professor Palmer has supplied guides to paleography and overviews of English legal history, as well as links to other websites of interest to legal historians. The AALT will continue to add images from the National Archives, as well as collections of historical documents from other court systems in the Anglo-American legal world. If others wish to contribute to the general endeavor at other archives and lack only the resources to run a website, the intention of this website is to be available to host such materials, as long as they are legally oriented and meet the general standards for image quality and public availability. The AALT site has the financial resources to continue as a public resource and to grow as materials are offered.

Please visit the AALT website at http://aalt.law.uh.edu/ and join us in welcoming this valuable resource.

Heirs of the Body: Cadavers, Claims, and Kin

2007-01-30T13:17:00.000-06:00

The LSU Center for Civil Law Studies, under the direction of Professor Olivier Moréteau, will sponsor a Civil Law Workshop on revisiting the distinction between persons and things. Professor David Gruning, Loyola University School of Law will speak on the "Heirs of the Body: Cadavers, Claims, and Kin." The workshop will take place at the LSU Law Center's Tucker Room on Thursday, 08 Feb 2007, from 4:30 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. I plant to attend and report on the developments.

Civil Codes of the World on the Web

2007-01-25T14:36:00.000-06:00

The Association Henri Capitant Louisiana Chapter, under the direction of Professor Alain Levasseur, began an effort to collect the Civil Codes available on the web with the intention of supporting the Association’s primary goal of preserving and fostering the civilian heritage. Working in conjunction with Prof. Levasseur, I created a Civil Code Pathfinder for all the Civil Code sites available on the web... For countries where English is not the official language, and where English translations are available, the links to the English translations of the codes are provided. We make no representation as to the accuracy or validity of these translations. If you know of other Civil Codes sites not included in the pathfinder or if you find any dead links while using it, please contact me at vicenc.feliu@law.lsu.edu. Thanks for your help and I hope this collection can be of use to all.

Department of Defense Releases New Manual for Military Commissions

2007-01-24T19:25:00.000-06:00

On January 18, the Department of Defense released a new Manual for Military Commissions. This new manual describes the procedures to be used on detainee trials under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. See the Jurist article. (Yes, I know this is not Civil Law, but it applies to my other interests so I posted it anyway.)

The Association Henri Capitant Publishes Answer to World Bank Report

2007-01-24T17:47:00.000-06:00

In 2005 the World Bank published a report titled Doing Business – Removing Obstacles to Growth in which it heavily criticized the Civil Law tradition, and the French legal tradition in particular, as one of the primary reasons for underdevelopment in some Third World Countries... Last month, the Association Henri Capitant published the second volume of its response to the World Bank, available in French at this link. You can also read my translation of Professor Alain Levasseur’s, the President of the Association Henri Capitant Louisiana Chapter and Hermann Moyse, Sr. Professor of Law at LSU Law, answer to the World Bank in this link.

Welcome to the Yellow Shoe Civil Law Blog!

2007-01-24T16:33:00.000-06:00

I've been working with the LSU Center for Civil Law Studies for almost a year and a half and I just recently got into blogging. I had the idea of creating a blog where I could post developments and things of interest happening specifically in the Civil Law and about foreign and international law issues in general. This blog is the result of that idea, I hope that it is of use or at least enjoyable.