The legal system of Louisiana under French colonial rule from 1699 to 1769
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/SIT.2019.024Keywords
Louisiana, french law, legal history, mixed jurisdictions, Great Ordinances, Code NoirAbstract
The subject of the paper is an attempt to show the legal system of Louisiana in its first period of operation – first as a trading colony administered by the French merchant Antoine Crozat and the Scottish financier John Law, and then as a royal domain, which Louisiana was until 1769. The diversity of the local legal systems of pre-revolutionary France was impossible to implement in the legal framework of the French colonies, and therefore it was decided to apply in Louisiana the universally applicable laws in the form of Grand Ordinances and the law of the local region of Île-de-France – La Coutume de Paris. The legal system of the colony was not the same as the legal system of the European capital, as evidenced by the regulations created directly for the overseas territories. The best known example of such a legal act was the Ordonance of Louis XIV from 1685. (Code Noir), which regulated slavery in French colonies. The authors argue that, despite the lack of reception of the Napoleonic Code in Louisiana, elements of the French legal tradition were an impor tant factor in building and consolidating the civilian element, which still distinguishes the legal system of the American state of Louisiana from that of other members of the Union.
References
Allain M., L’immigration française en Louisiane, 1718–1721, “Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française” 1975, nr 28/4.
Andrews R., Law, Magistracy and Crime in Old Regime Paris, 1735–1789, Vol. 1: The System of Criminal Justice, Cambridge 1994.
Arnold M., Unequal Laws unto a Savage Race: European Legal Traditions in Arkansas, Fayetteville 1985.
Baade H.W., Marriage Contracts in French and Spanish Louisiana: A Study in Notarial Jurisprudence, “Tulane Law Review” 1978–1979, nr 53/1.
Baszkiewicz J., Historia Francji, Wrocław 2008.
Brasseaux C. A ., The Image of Louisiana and the Failure of Voluntary French Emigration, 1683–1731, “Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society” 1979.
Brasseaux C.A., The Administration of Slave Regulations in French Louisiana, 1724–1766, “Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association” 1980, nr 21/2.
Dauchy S., French Law and Its Expansion, w: The Oxford Handbook of European Legal History, red. H. Pihlajamaki, M.D. D ubber, M. Godfrey, Oxford 2008.
Dawson J., The Codification of French Customs, “Michigan Law Review” 1940, nr 38.
Dickinson J.A., New France: Law, Courts and the Coutume de Paris, 1608–1760, “Manitoba Law Journal” 1995, nr 23.
Ferrière C. de, Corps et compilation de tous les commentaires anciens et modernes sur la coutume de Paris, t. 2, Paris 1685.
Gayarré Ch., Histoire de la Louisiane, t. I–II, Nouvelle-Orléans 1846.
Giraud M., Histoire de la Louisiane française, t. I, Paris 1963.
Gravier H., La Colonisation de la Louisiane a l’epoque de Law, Paris 1904.
Hanger K.S., A Medley of Cultures Louisiana History at the Cabildo, New Orleans 1996.
Hardy J.D., The Superior Council in Colonial Louisiana, w: Frenchmen and French ways in the Mississippi Valley, red. J.F. McDermott, Urbana–Chicago–London 1968.
Hardy, Jr. J .D., The Transportation of Convicts to Colonial Louisiana, “Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association” 1966, nr 7/3.
Heinrich P., La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, 1717–1731, Paris 1907.
IIlbert C., Legislative Methods and Forms, Oxford 1901.
Johnson J., La Coutume de Paris: Louisiana’s First Law, “Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association” 1989, nr 30/2.
Klimaszewska A., Mosakowski M., Code Noir, u źródeł ordonansu Ludwika XIV w sprawie niewolników, Gdańsk 2013.
Klimaszewska A., Ordinance of 1667: Ideology of Modern Codification as a Political Tool of Louis XIV, “Wrocław Review of Law, Administration and Economics” 2016, nr 5.
Klimaszewska A., Ordonanse królewskie we Francji, „Czasopismo Prawno-Historyczne” 2017, nr 69.
Kondert R., Les Allemands en Louisiane de 1721 à 1732, “Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française” 1979, nr 33/1.
Levasseur A.A., The Major Periods of Louisiana Legal History, “Loyola Law Review” 1996, nr 41/4.
Martin F.-X., History of Louisiana, from the Earliest Period, t. 1, New Orleans 1827.
Maxwell M., Protestant Marriage in Eighteenth Century France, “Social Science” 1955, nr 30.
Micelle J.A., From Law Court to Local Government: Metamorphosis of the Superior Council of French Louisian, “Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association” Spring 1968, nr 9/2.
Moore J.P., Antonio de Ulloa: A Profile of the First Spanish Governor of Louisiana, “Louisiana History” Summer 1967, nr VIII.
Munro W.B., The custom of Paris in the New World, Stuttgart 1907.
Palmer V.V., Historical Notes on the First Codes and Institutions in French Louisiana, w: Essays in Honor of Saúl Litvinoff, red. O. Moréteau, J. Romañach, A.L. Zuppi, Baton Rouge 2008.
Pascal R., Of the Civil Code and Us, “Louisiana Law Review” 1998, nr 59.
Plauché Dart H., Law Library of a Louisiana Lawyer in the Eighteenth Century, “American Bar Association Journal” 1925, nr 11/2.
Plauché Dart H., The Legal Institutions of Louisiana, “Southern Law Quarterly” November 1918, nr 3. Reprint w: “Louisiana Historical Quarterly” January 1919, nr 2.
Płaza S., Historia prawa w Polsce na tle porównawczym, cz. I: X–XVIII w., Kraków 2002.
Putney Beers H., French and Spanish Records of Louisiana: A Bibliographical Guide to Archive and Manuscript Sources, Baton Rouge–London 1989.
Ruggiu F.-J., Coutume de Paris, Encyclopédie du patrimoine culturel del’Amérique française, http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/fr/article-187/
Coutume_de_Paris.html#.XU_NRBTlw6U (dostęp: 13.08.2019 r.).
Rushforth B., Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France, Chapel Hill 2012.
Schmidt G., History of the Jurisprudence of Louisiana, “The Louisiana Law Journal” 1841, nr 1/1.
Tetley W., Mixed Jurisdictions: Common Law v. Civil Law (Codified and Uncodified), “Louisiana Law Review” 2000, nr 60.
Valin R.J., Nouveau commentaire sur l’ordonnance de la marine, t. 1–2, Rochelle 1766.
Vidal C., French Louisiana in the Age of the Companies, 1712–1731, w: Constructing Early Modern empires: proprietary ventures in the Atlantic world, 1500–1750, red. L.H. Roper, V. van Ruymbeke, Leiden–Boston 2007.
Villiers M. de, La Louisiane, histoire de son nom et de ses frontières successives (1681–1819), “Journal de la Société des Américanistes” 1929, nr 21/1.
Zins H., Historia Kanady, Wrocław–Warszawa–Kraków–Gdańsk 1975.
Zoltvany Y.-F., Esquisse de la Coutume de Paris, “Revue d’histoire de l’Amdrique frangaise” 25 (1971).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 1250
Number of citations: 0
