Updated Annotated Justinian Code Website

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.

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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.

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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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Digitized Civil Law Materials

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!

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ALEX - The Austrian Law Digitization Project

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.

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