The Code Napoleon And The Common Law World

Originally published: New York: New York University Press, 1956. x, 438 pp. This book consists of papers delivered by participants in the conference sponsored by the New York University Institute of Comparative Law to honor the 150th anniversary of the French Civil Code, which was the largest public celebration of the event in the legal world. The papers deal with the influence of the Code upon common-law countries in their efforts to manage statute and case law and gives examples of modern attempts at restatement of the law and uniform state laws as examples of the effect of the Code's coherence and logic. The papers were given by notable legal scholars such as Benjamin Akzin, Ren Cassin, C.J. Friedrich, Arthur von Mehren, Roscoe Pound, Thibadeau Rinfret, Max Rheinstein, Angelo Piero Sereni, Jack Bernard Tate and Arthur T. Vanderbilt. At the time of these lectures Schwartz was Director of the Institute. Includes a bibliography by Julius J. Marke. Reprint of the first edition. BERNARD SCHWARTZ 1923-1997] was professor of law and director of the Institute of Comparative Law, New York University. He was the author of over fifty books, including French Administrative Law and the Common-Law World (1954, reprinted 2006), the five-volume Commentary on the Constitution of the United States (1963-1968), Constitutional Law: A Textbook (2d ed., 1979), Administrative Law: A Casebook (4th ed., 1994) and A History of the Supreme Court (1993).

Early English translation of the Code Napoleon. xix, 627 pp. Originally published: London: Printed for Charles Hunter, Law Bookseller, 1824. Reprint of the second English edition. A comprehensive reformation and codification of the French civil laws, the Code Napoleon was renamed the Civil Code after the Bourbon restoration, and is still in force. It has served as the model for the legal codes of more than twenty nations throughout the world. The French Revolution overturned many of the hundreds of codes of law that had prevailed from ancient times, and added more than 14,000 pieces of legislation. After the National Convention and Directory failed in five attempts to organize this unwieldy mass, Napoleon appointed a commission to draft the new Civil Code. It was enacted in March 21, 1804, after a three year period of 87 sessions. It embodies a typically Napoleonic mix of liberalism and conservatism. Most of the freedoms won by the revolution, such as equality before the law, freedom of religion and the abolition of feudalism were preserved. At the same time, the Code reinforced patriarchal power by making the husband the ruler of the household. The translator, GEORGE SPENCE [1787-1850], was an English jurist and Barrister of the Inner Temple.

Schwartz provides a masterly exposition of administrative law through a comparative study of the French droit administratif, arguably the most sophisticated Continental model. As Vanderbilt points out in his introduction, this is an important field that involves much more than administrative procedure. It deals directly with some of the most crucial issues of modern government regarding the distribution of power between governmental units, the resulting effect on the freedom of the individual and on the strength and stability of the state. Reprint of the sole edition. "[T]his book represents a significant achievement.... Unlike so many volumes that roll off the press these days, it fills a real need; and, though perhaps not the definitive work in English on the subject, it fills it extremely well." --Frederic S. Burin, Columbia Law Review 54 (1954) 1016 Bernard Schwartz [1923-1997] was professor of law and director of the Institute of Comparative Law, New York University. He was the author of over fifty books, including The Code Napoleon and the Common-Law World (1956), the five-volume Commentary on the Constitution of the United States (1963-68), Constitutional Law: A Textbook (2d ed., 1979), Administrative Law: A Casebook (4th ed., 1994) and A History of the Supreme Court (1993).

Pollock, Sir Frederick. The Genius of the Common Law. New York: The Columbia University Press, 1912. vii, 141 pp. Reprinted 2000 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 99-047160. ISBN 1-58477-043-0. Cloth. $60. * A collection of Sir Frederick Pollock's lectures from the Carpentier Series at Columbia University. Holdsworth praised the eight lectures as a discussion of "...critical studies of aspects and characteristics of the common law which only an accomplished legal historian, a master of the modern law, and a professor of jurisprudence could have written." Holdsworth, Some Makers of English Law 287. Marke, A Catalogue of the Law Collection of New York University (1953) 143.