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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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