LABOULAYE (Édouard) – HISTORY OF LAND OWNERSHIP LAW IN THE WEST

LABOULAYE (Édouard)

HISTORY OF LAND OWNERSHIP LAW IN THE WEST

Édition :

Paris

Date :

1839

3 t. in 1 vol. in-8, brown half morocco, gilt title on smooth spine decorated with double gilt lines underlining, speckled edges, (old binding with cracking, some foxing in the interior), fresh interior, XII-532 p.

This work is divided into two parts: the first, *The History of Property Law among the Romans*; the second, *The History of Property Law among the Barbarians up to the Establishment of Fiefs*. The first part contains "particularly interesting points, notably the chapters dealing with the Distinction between Ownership and Possession, the Municipal Organization in the Late Period of the Empire, the Origin of the Colonate, an institution whose influence on the development of serfdom remains little known, and the Julia and Papia Poppoea Laws, which revolutionized all inheritance legislation and reigned supreme for almost the entire duration of the empire. (...) After some considerations on the early Germanic tribes, the author examines how the conquest unfolded. In the author's opinion, it was less an invasion from the outside than a kind of taking possession." The Barbarians had established themselves in the heart of the ruined empire, and, under the names of auxiliaries and federates, they were already its masters. In the following book, which is the sixth, Mr. Laboulaye explains the condition of free men and property; he shows us each owner of allodial lands as sovereign in his domain and subject only to the three major obligations of the canton: the assembly or plea, the function of judge of his peers in war; he then explains how the small allodial lands disappeared through the effect of vassalage, and, on this occasion, he takes up the underlying work of Mr. Guizot, and explains what the Recommendation and the Precarious were; he tries to prove that the Recommendation was the very form of vassalage and not a different institution, as the illustrious historian seems to have thought. In the seventh book, the author returns to this question of vassalage; He paints a threefold picture of the barbarian king: a military leader for free men, a kind of Roman prefect for the former inhabitants, and a feudal lord for all those who became his vassals. He shows us how this last quality ultimately absorbed the other two. Next come immunities, and especially ecclesiastical immunities, to which we perhaps owe the revival of cities and the preservation of civilization. Mr. Laboulaye explains what is meant by the word "benefice," a complex expression that has been the cause of great historical misunderstandings, due to a failure to accurately grasp the different ideas this word has expressed. He also tells us of the cruel condition of the beneficiaries: how these benefices contributed to the grandeur and wealth of the mayors of the palace; and finally, how these benefices, becoming hereditary and transformed into fiefs, led to feudalism. The subject, as we see, lies at the very heart of French history and serves as a necessary supplement to all works that have limited themselves to the narration of facts. The eighth book deals with Germanic property in its relation to private law, that is to say, the different legal characteristics of property and the forms according to which it was transmitted. The last chapter shows us how the allodial land was transformed into a fief without losing its character, and how it was true to say that the crown of France (the allodial land having become a fief) should be governed by Salic law, which was the law of allodial lands. The ninth book depicts the Germanic family, the guardianship of women, the regime of property during marriage, the dowry, the Morgengabe or morning gift that the husband gave to the wife as the price of her virginity (in pretium pulchritudinis), the dowry, etc. The author then tells us in what ways succession among the Germanic peoples differed from Roman succession, a difference that still persists in our modern legal systems. He explains the origin of representation, which was only accepted following a contest ordered by the Emperor Otto, a contest in which the champion of the nephews defeated the champion of the uncle, to the great satisfaction of all future nephews; finally, he explains how, under the influence of Roman ideas, the use of wills was introduced through the use of legal formulas, a practice antipathetic to the Germanic spirit, which recognized only God's right to create an heir. Finally, in a last book, which is no less interesting in the work, the author has drawn upon the Polyptych of Irminon, published a few years ago by our learned colleague, Mr. Guérard, to tell us what the condition of serfs was during this period of confusion preceding feudalism. This entire new section is of great interest. One can already see in this miserable condition the germ of a better future; one senses that Christianity has passed through, and that, while the Romans, for eight centuries, saw in the slave only a thing, the Barbarians, under the influence of religious ideas, made the slave a man and almost a companion.

Référence : 56365

180,00 €

Mots-clés : Ancient Law - History of Law, Property Law