UE French Legal History: From Diversity to Unity

This course aims at introducing students to French legal culture through the study of French law’s main historical stages. It starts with a depiction of the Frankish kingdom’s legal diversity (Roman law coexisting with Barbarian laws). Then are presented the confrontation of local customs and “learned laws” (roman law and canon law) in medieval France, the emergence of a unified national law in the early modern period, the influence of the French Revolution, whose ambitious plans were eventually carried out by Bonaparte’s dictatorship through the Napoleonic codification. The course then focuses on the evolutions French law underwent during the 19th and 20th centuries: the progressive adaptation of public law to the republican regime and of private law to social changes. Through this historical introduction, students will discover landmarks texts of French legal history, such as the Salic Law, the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the Code Napoléon, etc.

Classes will consist of lecture presentations, with questions and discussions by students strongly encouraged. During each class, a group of students will make a presentation on a topic chosen from a list given by the teacher during the first class.

Assessment will be based on an oral presentation made in class (50 %) and a final oral examination on a subject drawn by lot (50 %).