French law

Article 2008 of the French Civil Code even goes so far as to treat all transactions of an agent who acts in ignorance of the death of his principal as valid. The more balanced solution offered by the courts on the Continent, however, is to make the good faith…

In France, national rules on insolvency and bankruptcy were inserted into the Ordonnance du Commerce of 1673. It regulated both voluntary assignments for the benefit of creditors made by merchants (Title X) and the proceedings and effects flowing from bankruptcy (Title XI). It was interpreted to…

…number of countries following the French system, a contract of carriage requires the presence of three indispensable elements: carriage, control of the operation by the carrier, and a professional carrier. If any of these elements is missing, the contract is one for the hire of services rather than a special…

In France, for example, bankruptcy is open only to individuals who are merchants and to business organizations, and there are special rules applying to commercial cases. In Germany, similarly, the general rules on consumer sales are in part superseded by special rules on commercial sales. A…

…Zürich in 1815 and in France in 1841. By 1848 the first legal limitation of the working hours of adults was adopted by the Landsgemeinde (citizens’ assembly) of the Swiss canton of Glarus. Sickness insurance and workers’ compensation were pioneered by Germany in 1883 and 1884, and compulsory arbitration in…

…of assets in bankruptcy in French law, people who act as directors and participate in the management of the company’s affairs are treated as such even though they have not been formally appointed.

In France judicial review must take place in the abstract (i.e., in the absence of an actual case or controversy) and before promulgation (i.e., before a challenged law has taken effect). In other countries (e.g., Austria, Germany, South Korea, and Spain) courts can exercise judicial review…

French criminal law has predominated in the French-speaking African states. Italian criminal law and theory have been influential in Latin America.

…continental European countries, such as France or Germany, punishment of crimes may be enhanced when the offense was committed by two or more persons acting in concert.

French defamation laws historically have been more severe. An act of 1881, which inaugurated modern French defamation law, required conspicuous retraction of libelous material in newspapers and allowed truth as a defense only when publications concerned public figures. Modern German defamation is similar but generally…

France initiated deportation during the Revolutionary period; the practice survived until 1938 despite much public criticism of the prison conditions on the islands of French Guiana, particularly the notorious Devil’s Island. Peter I the Great of Russia ordered political prisoners to Siberia in 1710, thus…

The French and Japanese penal codes provide for reduction of punishment according to a prescribed scale when the jury or court finds extenuating circumstances.

In France first-time offenders usually are paroled after serving one-half of their sentences; recidivists are eligible for parole after a longer period of imprisonment.

French law does not define riot separately but treats it as a special case of resistance to public authority under the general heading of rebellion. Breach of the peace, which is central to the Anglo-American concept of riot, is not treated as an offense in…

In France the police have extensive powers of search and seizure in the case of flagrant offense and when a crime is being committed or has just been committed, but in other instances court authorization is required.

Two days later, a French army officer, General Charles de Gaulle, appealed by radio from London (whence he had fled on June 17) for a French continuation of the war against Germany. On June 28 de Gaulle was recognized by the British as the leader of Free France (as…

The Portuguese and French used their own laws in their colonies. In British India some British statutes applied, and a few have remained in force. All powers adapted their laws to local conditions, and the famous Anglo-Indian codes, passed in India at intervals from 1860 to 1882, reflected…

…should be based on the French or the English system of law. This disagreement arose from the rather strange position of both those systems in Japanese law schools and courts. After the restoration, law schools had been set up that gave courses in both English and French law. Because of…

…in some parts of southern France and in central Italy. The Christian church, which became the official Roman imperial church after 381 ce, developed its own canon law, courts, and practitioners and followed the general outline of later Roman legal organization. Because of its success among the invaders, the church…

…others, such as Japan and France, the various official bureaus are more likely to be staffed, respectively, by law graduates not admitted to practice or by nonlawyers who have been trained in a special school of administration. In the formerly socialist countries of eastern Europe, most lawyers tended to work…

In France law partnerships are permitted, and the proportion of lawyers practicing in this manner is constantly increasing. Incorporation of legal practitioners is almost universally prohibited. These restrictions result from the emphasis on personal responsibility of the individual lawyer to his client, to the court, and…

In France the jury of nine, which sits only in the assize courts, where only the most serious crimes are tried, is in reality a group of assessors who must decide in conjunction with three professional judges. Juries may circumvent the judges, as a majority of…

For example, in France anyone accused of a crime beyond a minor misdemeanour must have counsel at the preliminary hearing and the trial, but this right has not been extended to cover police interrogation. Japan requires counsel only for cases in which punishment may exceed a three-year prison…

In France the bailli had much greater power; from the 13th to the 15th century they were the principal agents of the king and his growing central administration for countering feudalism. The bailli was part of this central administration, appointed by the king and required to…

France, magistrate responsible for conducting the investigative hearing that precedes a criminal trial. In this hearing the major evidence is gathered and presented, and witnesses are heard and depositions taken. If the juge d’instruction is not convinced that there is sufficient evidence of guilt to…

In France numerous types of professionals and even nonprofessionals handle various aspects of legal work. The most prestigious is the avocat, who is equal in rank to a magistrate or law professor. Roughly comparable to the English barrister, the avocat’s main function is to plead in…

In some countries, such as France, public prosecution is carried out by a single office that has representatives in courts all over the country (see ministère public). In Japan, too, the office of public prosecutor runs parallel to a unitary court system. In the United States, however, states and counties…

In Italy and France the prosecutor is a member of the judiciary. Both prosecutors and judges receive the same training, and both may move from one role to the other in the course of their advancement in the civil service. In Germany, although the prosecutor is not technically…

in French civil law, a judge who furnishes a written report on the case at hand to other judges of the court, in which he sets forth the arguments of the parties, specifies the questions of fact and of law raised in the dispute, and…

In the French civil code and those countries that follow its pattern, however, the term heir is limited to the universal intestate successor. A person to whom a testator leaves his entire estate is called a légataire universel; when the estate is divided, the beneficiaries are called…

Thus, in French law, standing crops are movables; farm implements and animals are immovables (largely because they are thought to serve the land and be components of it). In German law, the distinction is somewhat clearer: immovables are tracts of land and their component parts; movables are…

France enacted its patent system the following year. By the end of the 19th century, many countries had patent laws, and today there are more than 100 separate jurisdictions regarding patents.

In France, in the 16th century, possession over a period of 10–20 years in good faith and with title conferred ownership; 30 years was necessary without either.

…marked by the promulgation in France of the Napoleonic Civil Code (1804), a systematic and comprehensive code of private noncommercial law that was to have great influence in the European codification movement that followed. The code is notable for its reluctance to recognize interests in property other than the owner’s.

The French system is notable for the fact that it divides the deceased’s property between his maternal and paternal kin if there are no descendants. The German system is more like the Anglo-American.

In France the family is the taxable entity; there is only one rate schedule, but relief for family commitments is achieved by what is known as the family-quotient system. This is a form of income splitting in which the single graduated rate schedule is applied to…

…enact an income tax in France were begun in the 1870s, but it was not until 1909 that an income tax bill finally passed the Chamber of Deputies, only to be held up by opposition in the Senate. The bill was finally enacted as an emergency measure two weeks before…

…most forthright developments occurred in France, where the courts transformed the code to accommodate problems arising in an industrial society.

Germanic and French law early maintained very stringent liability for accidents and still do. Negligence became a basis of liability in English law only in 1825.