Legal interpretation in France under the reign of louis xvi

a review of the gazette des tribunaux

Jean-Louis Halperin

pp. 21-43

in: Yasutomo Morigiwa, Michael Stolleis, Jean-Louis Halperin (eds), Interpretation of law in the age of enlightenment, Berlin, Springer, 2011

Abstract

This chapter examines judicial interpretation of the law during the final years of France's Ancien Regime: in particular, the 15 years of Louis XVI's reign that preceded the French Revolution. I shall explore this interpretation through the lens of a periodical law report from the period, called the Gazette des tribunaux. To this end, first it will be necessary to present this publication's political and legal context. Second, I shall analyse the evolution of methods of publishing judgments, before proposing hypotheses about the evolution of legal interpretation itself.