THE MAJOR

LEGAL
LANGUAGES
A COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW
Major legal languages

 Legal Latin
 Legal German
 Legal French
 Legal English
History of Europe

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY9P0QSxlnI
Legal Latin
Preview

 History of the Latin language

 The development of Roman law
 Major codifications
 Latin in European culture
 Latin as the language of European ius comune
 Latin in modern legal languages
 Communication value of legal Latin
Ancient Rome
Roman kingdom (753 BC-509
BC)
Roman kingdom

 The city's founding - traditionally dated to 753 BC with

settlements around the Palatine Hill along the river Tiber
in central Italy, and ended with the overthrow of the kings
and the establishment of the Republic in about 509 BC.
 The kings, excluding Romulus, who according to legend
held office by virtue of being the city's founder, were all
elected by the people of Rome to serve for life, with none of
the kings relying on military force to gain or keep the
throne.
 Expansion of the Roman
Republic (509 BC-27 BC)
Expansion of the Roman Empire (Western:
285-476 AD; Eastern: 300-1453)
Latin language

 Old Latin
 Classical Latin
 Vulgar Latin
 Late Latin
 Medieval Latin
 Renaissance Latin
 Modern Latin
 Contemporary Latin
Latin language

 Old Latin - spoken from the Roman Kingdom to the later

part of the Roman Republic period
 Classical Latin - during the late republic and into the first
years of the empire, a new Classical Latin arose, a conscious
creation of the orators, poets, historians and other literate
men, who wrote the great works of classical literature,
which were taught in grammar and rhetoric schools
Vulgar Latin

 Vulgar Latin – (sermo vulgi, "the speech of the masses"), existed

concurrently with literate Classical Latin.
 This informal language - rarely written; philologists left with only
individual words and phrases cited by classical authors and those
found as graffiti.
 As it was free to develop on its own, there is no reason to suppose
that the speech was uniform either diachronically or
geographically.
 On the contrary, romanised European populations developed their
own dialects of the language, which eventually led to the
differentiation of Romance languages
Vulgar Latin

 Despite dialectal variation, the languages of Spain, France,

Portugal, and Italy retained a remarkable unity in phonological
forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilising influence of
their common Christian (Roman Catholic) culture.
 the Moorish conquest of Spain in 711 cut off communications
between the major Romance regions - the languages began to
diverge.
 The Vulgar Latin dialect that would later become Romanian
diverged somewhat more from the other varieties, as it was largely
cut off from the unifying influences in the western part of the
Empire.
Romance languages

 Vulgar Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the

9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance
writings begin to appear.
 They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday
speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing
Medieval Latin

 The written Latin in use during that portion of the

postclassical period when no corresponding Latin
vernacular existed.
 The spoken language had developed into the various
incipient Romance languages; however, in the educated and
official world Latin continued without its natural spoken
base.
 This Latin spread into lands that had never spoken Latin,
such as the Germanic and Slavic nations.
 It became useful for international communication between
the member states of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies.
Medieval Latin

 Without the institutions of the Roman empire that had

supported its uniformity, medieval Latin lost its linguistic
cohesion
 Meanings of many words have been changed and new
words have been introduced from the vernacular.
 Identifiable individual styles of incorrect classical Latin
prevail
Renaissance Latin

 The Renaissance briefly reinforced the position of Latin as a

spoken language by its adoption by the Renaissance
Humanists.
 Often led by members of the clergy, they were shocked by
the accelerated dismantling of the vestiges of the classical
world and the rapid loss of its literature.
 They strove to preserve what they could and restore Latin to
what it had been and introduced the practice of producing
revised editions of the literary works that remained by
comparing surviving manuscripts.
Renaissance Latin

 By the 15th century Medieval Latin was replaced by

versions supported by the scholars of the rising universities,
who attempted to discover what the classical language had
been
New Latin

 During the Early Modern Age, Latin still was the most
important language of culture in Europe.
 Until the end of the 17th century most books and almost all
diplomatic documents were written in Latin.
 Afterwards, most diplomatic documents were written in
French and later just native or other languages
Contemporary Latin

 The largest organisation that retains Latin in official and

quasi-official contexts is the Catholic Church
 Some states, universities – Latin mottoes
 Inscriptions on courtrooms, seals
 Latin – taught at many high schools
 Latin legal terms and maxims in European legal languages
Official status of Latin

 Holy See - used in the diocese, with Italian being the official
language of Vatican City
 Latin was the sole official language of the Kingdom of
Hungary from the 11th century to the mid 19th century,
when it was replaced by Hungarian in 1844.
Official status of Latin

 Latin was the official language of Croatian Parliament from

the 13th to the 19th century (1847). The oldest preserved
records of the parliamentary sessions (Congregatio Regni
totius Sclavonie generalis) – held in Zagreb (Zagabria),
Croatia – date from 19 April 1273. An extensive Croatian
Latin literature exists
 Poland - officially recognised and widely used between the
10th and 18th centuries, commonly used in foreign relations
and popular as a second language among some of the
nobility
Beginnings of Roman law

 The jurist Sextus Pomponius said, "At the

beginning of our city, the people began
their first activities without any fixed law,
and without any fixed rights: all things
were ruled despotically, by kings". It is
believed that Roman Law is rooted in the
Etruscan religion, emphasizing ritual.
Early Roman law

 Early law: linked to religion; undeveloped, with attributes of

strict formalism, symbolism, and conservatism, e.g. the
ritual practice of mancipatio (a form of sale).
Mancipatio

 a solemn verbal contract by which the ownership of certain

types of goods, called res mancipi, was transferred.
 effected in the presence of at least 5 witnesses, who must
be Roman citizens, and another person who holds a pair of
brazen scales. The purchaser, taking hold of the thing, says:
e.g. I affirm that this slave is mine according to quiritary
right, and he is purchased by me with this piece of bronze
and scales). He then strikes the scales with the piece of
bronze, and gives it to the seller as a symbol of the price
Lex Duodecim Tabularum
(450 BC)
Lex Duodecim Tabularum
(Law of the Twelve Tables)
 The plebeian tribune, C. Terentilius Arsa, proposed that the
law should be written, in order to prevent magistrates from
applying the law arbitrarily
 In 451 BC a board of ten men (Decemvirate) was appointed
to draw up a code
 Formally promulgated in 449 BC
 Drawn up on 12 tablets posted in the Forum
Romanum
Classical Roman law

 The first 250 years AD are the period during which Roman
law and Roman legal science reached its greatest degree of
sophistication. The law of this period is often referred to as
the classical period of Roman law.
 The literary and practical achievements of the jurists of this
period gave Roman law its unique shape
 Languages of the Roman
Empire
 Latin – lingua franca between diverse populations of the
Empire
 Byzantine Empire – Greek
 The boundary between the zones of dominance of these
languages ran from north to south along the centre of the
Empire: it crossed the Balkans and ran along the eastern
side of the territories of today’s Tunisia
Invasions of the Roman Empire
Fall of the Western Roman
Empire
Germanic laws (5th-9th c.)
Leges barbarorum
Customary law: local, fragmented; oral, based on
careful memorization
When justice is oral, the judicial act is personal and
subjective
Power, whose origins were at once magical, divine
and military, was exercised jointly by the king and
his warriors
 CANON LAW
Law of the church courts,
Based on Roman law
The Byzantine Empire

 In Western Europe, Roman law as a

coherent legal system disappeared with the
fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476
 Maintained at a very high level in the
Byzantine Empire
 Corpus Iuris Civilis
(Codex Justinianus, 529-35 AD)

 Most comprehensive
code of Roman law,
compiled under
Justinian I, by a
commission of jurists
Latin in European culture

 Thanks to the Catholic church, Latin

retained its position in medieval
Europe as the dominant written
language
 Latin– the language of law, religion,
science, literature
Re-Emergence of Roman Law
in the West
 C. 1050 Roman law, namely the
Justinian’s Code, was re-discovered in
Europe
 Scholars known as glossators, and later as
commentators, interpreted Justinian’s Code
and generated an influential body of law
and legal literature that came to be known
as the jus commune or common law of
Europe
 THE UNIVERSITY OF
BOLOGNA
 The oldest university
in the world (1088)
 THE UNIVERSITY OF
BOLOGNA
 Studentswho studied Roman law in
Bologna found that many rules of Roman
law were better suited to regulate complex
economic transactions than customary
rules;
 Roman law was re-introduced into legal
practice
Ius comune

 Therediscovered Roman law dominated

legal practice in most European countries.
A legal system, in which Roman law was
mixed with elements of canon law and of
Germanic custom
Ius comune

 Iuscomune – common to countries of

continental Europe
 Lawyers from continental Europe (and
some other countries) speak the same
conceptual language
 Latin – the language of European lawyes
NATIONAL
CODIFICATIONS
 The practical application of ius comune
came to an end when national codifications
were made
 In 1804, the French civil code came into
force
 In the 19th century, many European states
adopted the French model or drafted their
own codes
Rise of national languages

 Strenghtening of nation states - the

rise of the national languages as
symbols of national identity and a
tool of power politics
Latin in European Culture

 Use of Latin as a language of science began to diminish

even in 17th, above all in the 18th c.
 France sought to replace Latin with her own national
language
 End of 18th c. most national languages ousted Latin
 Smaller nations, whose languages were not instruments of
power in the international arena, kept to the use of Latin
Latin in modern legal languages: “Latin
is dead – Long Live Latin!”

 Although Latin is no longer the language of legal

science or of legal practice – leaving aside canon
law – it has left important traces in modern legal
languages
 The style of modern legal languages still reflects
the rhythm of legal Latin
 A large proportion of the vocabulary of modern
legal languages comes from legal Latin
Latin in modern legal languages

 Latin
quotations: terms, expressions,
maxims
 By using Latin expressions and maxims, a
lawyer sets out to show his professional
competence
Display function of Latin

 A high status value in the Western world

 Latin maxims: on the walls of courthouses
 Seals of judicial authorities – often adorned with
such expressions;
 Emblems of public organ, law societies or bar
associations
The common heritage of legal
Latin
 Common heritage - facilitates
communication between lawyers from
various countries
The Communication Value of
Legal Latin
 The same expressions and maxims – not
used in all countries, and their meaning is
not necessarily the same
 Today’slawyers – lack an adequate
knowledge of Latin
Legal German
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
Preview

 Early history: fragmentation v. unification

 History of the German language
 History of German law
 Development of legal German
 International impact
History of Germany

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw2MzEorTu0
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgheO1Hbbt8
Western Europe after the Fall
of the Western Roman Empire
Kingdom of the Franks – Regnum
Francorum (481–843)
Kingdom of the Franks

•Tournai (431–508)
Capital •Paris (508–768)
•Aachen (768–843)
Frankish, Latin, Vulgar Latin
Common languages
(Gallo-Romance)
Originally Frankish paganism, but
virtually all Franks shifted to the
Religion
Roman Catholic Church by 750
AD
Kingdom of the Franks

 It is the predecessor of the modern states of France and

Germany.
 Francia was among the last surviving Germanic kingdoms
from the Migration Period era before its partition in 843.
 After the Treaty of Verdun in 843, West Francia became the
predecessor of France, and East Francia became that of
Germany
The Carolingian Empire
The Carolingian Empire 768-888):
Romanorum sive Francorum imperium

 To the south it bordered the Emirate of Córdoba and, after

824, the Kingdom of Pamplona; to the north it bordered the
kingdom of the Danes; to the west it had a short land border
with Brittany, which was later reduced to a tributary; and to
the east it had a long border with the Slavs and the Avars,
who were defeated and their land incorporated into the
empire.
Carolingian Empire

 The language of official acts in the empire was Latin.

 The empire was referred to variously as universum regnum
("the universal kingdom", as opposed to the regional
kingdoms), Romanorum sive Francorum imperium
(„Empire of the Romans and Franks"), Romanum imperium
("Roman empire") or even imperium christianum
("Christian empire„)
Charlemagne (768–814)

 In 768 Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began

an extensive expansion of the realm.
 He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day
France, Germany, northern Italy, and beyond, linking the
Frankish kingdom with Papal lands
Charlemagne and the
Carolingian Renaissance
 Like the Roman emperors before them, Charlemagne and
his successors claimed the power to make laws for all their
subjects, irrespective of nation, and without the consent of
any assembly.
 The validity of the law depended solely on the oral act of
the king who promulgated it.
Fragmentation of the
Carolingian empire
 The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the
crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of Romans in
the West in over three centuries.
 His death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation
of the Carolingian empire and decline that would eventually
lead to the development of the Kingdom of France and the
Holy Roman Empire.
The Roman Catholic Church as
a unifying force
 With the disintegration of the Frankish kingdom in the late
9th century, government became highly decentralized
  the Roman Catholic Church became the main unifying
force in western Europe and began to claim jurisdiction over
many matters that earlier had been considered secular rather
than ecclesiastical.
 The canon law was largely influenced by Roman law and
contained very few Germanic elements.
 Holy Roman Empire/Sacrum Romanum
Imperium/ Heiliges Römisches Reich (800-
1806)
Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire

 Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium,

Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, as
well as most of Italy and parts of Denmark, France and
Poland.
 Few of these countries were more than geographical
expressions for most of the Empire’s existence and none
occupied its present borders
The Holy Roman Empire

 The Holy Roman Empire became eventually composed of

four kingdoms. The kingdoms were:
 Kingdom of Germany (part of the empire since 962),
 Kingdom of Italy (from 962 until 1648),
 Kingdom of Bohemia (since 1002 as the Duchy of Bohemia
and raised to a kingdom in 1198),
 Kingdom of Burgundy (from 1032 to 1378).
Holy Roman Empire

 Over time, the Empire grew increasingly

powerless in relation to the regional power
centres
 Power of the emperor diminished, that of
regional princes flourished
 Formally, the Empire lasted until 1806
 Seats of the Holy Roman
Empire
 From 794 – Aachen
 1328–1347 and 1742–1745 – Munich
 1355–1437 and 1576–1611 – Prague
 1437–1576 and 1611–1806 – Vienna
Official languages

Official languages for the Holy

Roman Empire for the whole of
its existence: German and Latin
History of the German language

 Old High German (-1050)

 Middle High German (1050 to 1350)
 Early New High German (1350–1650)
 Standardization
Old High German

 The history of the German language begins with the High

German consonant shift during the migration period, which
separated Old High German (OHG) dialects from Old
Saxon
 The High German consonant shift altered a number of
consonants in the southern German dialects and explains
why many German words have different consonants from
the obviously related words in English, Dutch and the
Scandinavian languages
 the surviving texts of OHG show a wide range of dialectal
diversity with very little written uniformity.
Old High German

 The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through

monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin
originals; as a result, the surviving texts are written in
highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant
Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary.
 At this point monasteries, where most written works were
produced, were dominated by Latin, and German was only
occasional used in official and ecclesiastical writing
Old High German

 Through the OHG period German was predominantly a

spoken language, with a wide range of dialects and a much
more extensive oral tradition than a written one.
 Having just emerged from the High German consonant
shift, OHG was also a relatively new language still
undergoing a number of phonetic, morphological, and
syntactic changes.
 The scarcity of written work, instability of the language, and
widespread illiteracy of the time account for the lack of
standardization up to the end of the OHG period in 1050.
Middle High German (1050 to
1350)
 MHG was a period of significant expansion of the
geographical territory occupied by Germanic groups, and
consequently of the number of German speakers.
 Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic
groups extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale
rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these groups
expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory
 .
Middle High German

 Along with the increasing wealth and geographic extent of

the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the
courts of nobles as the language of official proceedings and
literature – emergence of a standardized supra-dialectal
written language
 While these efforts were still regionally bound, German
began to be used in place of Latin for certain official
purposes, leading to a greater need for regularity in written
conventions
Early New High German
(1350–1650)
 Further displacement of Latin by German as the primary
language of court proceedings and of literature in the
German states.
 While these states were still under the control of the Holy
Roman Empire and far from any form of unification, the
desire for a cohesive written language that would be
understandable across the many German-speaking
principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever.
Early New High German

 As a spoken language German remained highly fractured

with a vast number of often mutually-incomprehensible
regional dialects spoken throughout the German states;
 the invention of the printing press c.1440 and the
publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in
1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing
German as a supra-dialectal written language.
Martin Luther and the standaridsation of
German

 Translation of the Bible 1534

 Wide circulation was made
possible by the invention of
printing in 1455
The development of standard
German
 After the Reformation (16th c.), the
protestant states used new German written
standard (Hochdeutsch) and Low German
was no longer accepted in the Diet
Early New High German

 the rise of several important cross-regional forms of

chancery German
 Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of
the printing press led to the development of a number of
printers' languages aimed at making printed material
readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects
of German as possible.
 The greater ease of production and increased availability of
written texts brought about increased standardization in the
written form of the German language
Standardization (19th c.)

 The most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the

German language – Deutsches Worterbuch
 This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is
composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and
1860.
 In 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared
in the Duden Handbook
 In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a
complete standardization of the German language in its
written form and the Duden Handbook was declared its
standard definition.
History of law:
Early Germanic law
 Tacitus in his Germania gives an account of the legal
practice of the Germanic peoples of the 1st century. He
reports that criminal cases were put before the Thing (tribal
assembly).
 Minor offenses were regulated with damages (paid in
livestock), paid in part to the victim (or their family) and in
part to the king.
 The death penalty was reserved for two kinds of capital
offenses: military treason or desertion was punished by
hanging, and corporal infamy (rape) by throwing the
condemned into a bog.
Leges barbarorum

 Several Latin law codes of the Germanic peoples written in

the Early Middle Ages after the Fall of the Western Roman
Empire (also known as leges barbarorum "laws of the
barbarians") survive, dating to between the 5th and 9th
centuries.
 They are influenced by Roman law, canon law, and earlier
tribal customs.
 Central and West European Germanic law differed from
North Germanic law (Scandivanian law)
Early Germanic law

 Germanic law was codified in writing under the influence of

Roman law; previously it was held in the memory of
designated individuals who acted as judges and meted out
justice according to custom, based on careful memorization
of precedent.
 Among the Franks they were called rachimburgs. "Living
libraries, they were law incarnate, unpredictable and
terrifying.„
Early Germanic law

 Power, whose origins were at once magical, divine, and

military, was exercised jointly by the elected king and his
free warrior companions.
 Germanic law made no provisions for the public welfare,
the res publica of Romans
 The language of all these continental codes was Latin
 In Germanic Europe in the Early Middle Ages, every man
was tried according to the laws of his own ethnicity,
whether Roman, Salian or Ripuarian Frank, Frisian,
Burgundian, Visigoth, Bavarian
Early Germanic law

 The Germanic law system was in principle based on

compensation rather than revenge.
 Any injury must be compensated according to the damage
done, regardless of motive or intent.
 Even for capital crimes like murder, the compensation is a
weregeld, a fixed amount depending on the sex and social
status of the victim.
Early Germanic law

 For all of the Germanic peoples, law (West German, reht

and êwa; High German, wizzôd; North German, lagh, from
which the English word law is derived) was basically not
something laid down by a central authority, such as the
king, but rather the custom of a particular tribe
Early Germanic law

 It was essentially unwritten, being derived from popular

practices, and was not sharply distinguished from morality;
it was personal in the sense that it applied only to those who
belonged to the nation.
 Thus each man followed his own law, a notion appropriate
to a nomadic people who originally did not live in a clearly
defined territory.
 When, after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West,
Germanic tribes took over former Roman provinces, they
did not attempt to apply their laws to their Roman subjects,
for whom Roman law remained applicable.
Germanic law: Leges
Barbarorum
 Customary law – oral
 The first written collections of Germanic law: Leges
Barbarorum (5th - 9th century) written in Latin; technical
terms of Roman law
 Leges Barbarorum- not legislation in the modern sense but
rather records of customs that were first collected and then
declared as law.
Leges barbarorum

 Dealt with specific situations rather than general rules

 Focused on court procedure, monetary compensation for
acts of violence, and succession on death.
 The initiative for declaring law usually came from the king,
but the resulting laws normally required approval by the
popular assemblies. 
Canon law

 During the same period the Roman Catholic Church became

the main unifying force in western Europe and began to
claim jurisdiction over many matters that earlier had been
considered secular rather than ecclesiastical
 The canon law applied in the church courts was largely
influenced by Roman law and contained very few Germanic
elements. As the power of the church grew, the church
courts applied this law to matters that had previously been
dealt with by the secular courts, such as marriage, adultery,
wills, and succession.
Demise of customary law

 Merchants found that the old Germanic customary law was

inadequate to cope with the problems created by the rapid
growth of commerce that had occurred by the 12th century.
 A special commercial law, based mainly on Roman law as
developed by the Mediterranean seaborne traders, was
developed to settle disputes between merchants, without
regard to their nationality or place of residence.
Towards ius comune

 The local courts applied an unwritten customary law based

on the dominant tribal law of the area, and this formed the
basis of such codifications as the “Mirror of the Saxons” in
the 13th century.
 The range of cases that were subject to the jurisdiction of
the local courts - reduced.
 Some of the earlier Germanic codifications of customary
law were forgotten, partly because the local judges were
unable to understand Latin and partly because their rules
were unsuited to the new social and economic conditions.

Fragmentation of the
Carolingian empire
 The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the
crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of Romans in
the West in over three centuries.
 His death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation
of the Carolingian empire and decline that would eventually
lead to the development of the Kingdom of France and the
Holy Roman Empire.
Reception of Roman law

 European universities taught Roman law

 ius commune created by medieval lawyers
 Roman law was used to stress the status of the
Holy Roman Empire as a continuation of the
original Roman Empire
Reception of Roman law

 As the application of Roman law spread in

the German justice system, judges began
asking legal scholars for opinions
 Case files - sent to universities
 German law faculties provided a kind of
higher court service esp. in 16th and 17th
centuries
The Renaissance

 With the arrival of the Renaissance, Roman law again began

to play a strong role, and later on legal scholars revived the
formalities of Roman law as set by Justinian in the Corpus
iuris civilis.
 It became common law (Gemeines Recht) in large parts of
the German-speaking world and prevailed far into the 19th
century..
Emergence of first codes

 As the Holy Roman Empire was composed of countless

minor territorial entities, the laws varied very much,
according to local traditions and religions. These laws were
codified in about 3000 collections of rural laws.
 Only in relation to the Imperial superior Court of Justice,
the Reichskammergericht, there existed codes of procedure.
 In addition to these the Corpus Iuris Canonici, the source of
the better organized ecclesiastical judicature and the old
Corpus Iuris Civilis were central part of the education of
jurists and therefore generally known among them
The Enlightenment and the first
codifications
 The Enlightenment: the world- conceptualised as a rational
system, functioning with virtually mathematical accuracy
 In law: the major systematic codifications were an
expression of this notion
 ideal citizen – active, aware of his rights, rather than the
passive subject of former times,
The first codes

 Prussia made an effort to bring in an all-new set of laws

with the Allgemeines Landrecht für die preußischen Staaten
(General National Law for the Prussian States) (1794) a
system of codification, containing laws in relation to the
whole spectrum of legal divisions - had a great influence on
later works.
French influence

 After the French July Revolution of 1830, revolutionary

ideas of the French Revolution and Napoleon's laws such as
the Code civil, the Code pénal and the Code d'instruction
criminelle strongly influenced the German legal tradition,
especially in the Grand Duchy of Baden, which sometimes
only translated codifications of France for its own use.
Unification of Germany (1871)

 With the forming of the Deutsches Reich in 1871, a major

process of legal standardization ensued, beginning with
criminal law and procedural law and culminating in the
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (Book of Civil Law) after over
twenty years of creative process.
 Important parts of German legislation still contain
regulations of these laws.
 However, the various states always maintained their own
laws to an extent, and still do so in modern federal
Germany.
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB,
1900
 The most celebrated piece of German legislation
 Excellent internal logic of the codes (on the model
of natural sciences) but its content is not easily
understood from the reader’s standpoint
 A monument of refined legal scholarship; written
for judges versed in law, not for laymen
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB,
1900
 Power of BGB lies in the formalisation of its rules, balance
of structures and general principles of civil law
 The code has remained in force despite great social and
economic changes of 20th c.
 In force in DDR before promulgation of the East German
Civil Code in 1975
 Reception in far-off countries such as Brazil and Japan
The Weimar Constitution

 In 1919 in Weimar the Weimarer Verfassung (Weimar

Constitution) was created: the first democratic constitution
of Germany.
 A very liberal and democratic constitution, but it did not
include any basic ethical or political principles.
 It allowed unlimited changes, the only requirement of any
legal decision was a formally correct decision of the
appropriate legal institution.
Weimar Constitution

 In his book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, historian
William L. Shirer described the Weimar Constitution as "on
paper, the most liberal and democratic document of its kind
the twentieth century had ever seen ... full of ingenious and
admirable devices which seemed to guarantee the working
of an almost flawless democracy." Yet, it had serious
problems.
Hitler's subversion of the
Weimar Constitution
 Hitler suspending several constitutional protections on civil
rights. The articles affected were 114 (habeas corpus), 115
(inviolability of residence), 117 (correspondence privacy),
118 (freedom of expression /censorship), 123 (assembly),
124 (associations), and 153 (expropriation).
Hitler's subversion of the
Weimar Constitution
 This ultimate democratic legal constitution allowed Hitler to
change the whole form of government according to his
wishes.
 The main crimes of National Socialism were in form
absolutely legal, because the Nazi-dominated Reichstag
made the necessary decisions.
Division of Germany

 After the war, the two newly emerged German states

adopted two different legal systems.
 The socialist–communist East Germany tried to install new
laws strongly influenced by communist and socialist
ideology
Division of Germany

 The democratic state of West Germany built on existing

law.
 Most of the legal changes of the National socialism were
reversed, especially those with criminal content.
 A new feature was the treatment of the constitution. This
constitution was intended to avoid the mistakes of the
Weimar Constitution. With the reunification of the two
states, West German law was set in force for the most part.
International impact of German
law
 German legal tradition has in turn influenced many other
countries. Just to name a few, the legal systems of Japan,
the Republic of Korea (South Korea), United States of
America and the Republic of China (Taiwan) are to some
extent based on German law
History of legal language:
Germanic laws
 Latin of medieval Germanic written laws - a mixture of
Germanic and Roman styles
 In court hearings judges used dialects of Old German
Old Legal German

 Oldlegal German, based on dialects

– not uniform
 Levelof abstraction – low: large
number of words to describe concrete
cases
 Use of synonyms or quasi-synonyms
Linguistic consequences of the
reception of Roman law
 Latin loanwords
 Legal German – more abstract and precise
 From the end of 15th c. German legal terminology was
systematised and partly Latinised
 During the reception period, Latin gave some 80%
loanwords in German
 Since 17rh c.also French influence
The German Enlightenment (18th c.) and
Legal Language

 Legal language should be concise, simple and

understandable
 It should be short, in the image of military orders
 Legal texts should be clearly constructed, mysterious
abbreviations and complex sentence structures abandoned,
the use of Latin curtailed, words of foreign origin replaced
by German words
Germanisation of Legal
Language
 End of 18th c.: German – the main language of German
legal culture;
 Latin – subsidiary means of clarifying new or difficult terms
 Binary formulas - facilitated understanding of terminology:
purely German words clarifying the meaning of foreign
words: publice und öffentlich, bona fide und unter gutem
Glauben
Legal language of a unified
Germany
 In 19th c. Germany was unified and rose to
the position of a great power
 National language – important reflection of
nationalism
 Cleansing the German language of foreign
influences intensified with strengthened
nationalism; many neologisms
Germanisation of Legal
Language
 More radical demands: Legal German had
to be entirely cleansed of foreign words:
methodical Germanisation
(Eindeutschung) of the German language
 Noneed for loanwords, since any subject
could be dealt with by using purely
German words
Legal language of a unified
Germany
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (1900)
almost completely Germanised
terminology of German private
law
International coherence

 German used in several countries:

 Federal Republic of Germany
 Austria
 Switzerland
 Eastern Belgium
 North of Italy (South Tyrol)
Austrian Empire

 German was the language of commerce and government in

the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of
Central and Eastern Europe.
 Until the mid-19th century, it was the language of
townspeople throughout most of the Empire.
 Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or
someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality.
Austrian Empire

 Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually

Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the
Habsburg domain.
 Others, such as Pressburg, now Bratislava, were originally
settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily
German at that time.
 Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like
Zagreb and Ljubljana contained significant German
minorities.
Austrian Empire

 In the eastern provinces of Banat and Transylvania German

was the predominant language not only in the larger towns –
such as Timisoare, Sibiu and Brasov but also in many
smaller localities in the surrounding areas.
Austrian legal German

 Austria had its own legal and administrative system, whose

terminology was created in 19th c. without the influence of
the Eindeutschung movement
 Terms that were unknown in Germany and the meanings of
the same terms could be divergent
 Ruling classes in Austria - in contact with non-German
linguistic groups; a cultivated use of German developed,
with no basis in German dialects: Schönbrunnerdeutsch or
Hofratsdeutsch
Austrian legal German

 Legal German in Germany and Austria - identical:

same traditions
 Conceptual identity; legal terminology – similar
 Differences: some 650 Austrian terms differ from
corresponding terms in Germany (13%)
International importance of
German
 Historically – German was an important means of
communication in the regions surrounding the Baltic Sea
(notably in the Hanseatic era) and in Eastern Europe
 Late 19th and early 20th c. official language in a substantial
part of Europe
 Large number of peoples of Central and Eastern Europe - In
the immediate sphere of German influence of German;
also: Alsace and Lorraine belonged to the German Empire
International importance of
German
 Defeat in World War II; cultural attraction of German
diminished; eastern regions of the country annexed to
Poland and the Soviet Union
 International position of German – inferior to that of
English and French
 Today: 90 million German speakers in Europe; the
corresponding figures worldwide: 120 million
 Economic weight: German occupies 3rd place worldwide
International importance of
German
 The position of German as an international scientific
language weakened after World War II
 German – not an international language outside Europe;
official status only in 3 global organisations and in 12
European organisations
Legal French
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
Preview

 History of France
 History of the French language
 History of the French law
 Legal French
History of France

 History of France:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNk2QOn9oGE
 France and England: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=yCDgLC1DV3o
Roman period

 What is now France made up the bulk of the region known

to the Romans as Gaul.
 Roman writers noted the presence of three main ethno-
linguistic groups in the area: the Gauls, the Aquitani, and
the Belgae.
 The Gauls, the largest and best attested group, were Celtic
people speaking what is known as the Gaulish language
Roman period

 Roman forces under Julius Caesar conquered the rest of

Gaul in the Gallic Wars of 58–51 BC.
 Afterwards a Gallo-Roman culture emerged and Gaul was
increasingly integrated into the Roman Empire.
Frankonian kingdom

 In the later stages of the Roman Empire, Gaul was subject to

barbarian raids and migration, most importantly by the
Germanic Franks.
 The Frankish king Clovis I united most of Gaul under his
rule in the late 5th century, setting the stage for Frankish
dominance in the region for hundreds of years.
 Frankish power reached its fullest extent under
Charlemagne
Kingdom of the Franks – Regnum
Francorum (481–843)
West Francia

 After the Treaty of Verdun in 843, West Francia became the

predecessor of France, and East Francia became that of
Germany

 The medieval Kingdom of France emerged from the

western part of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire, known
as West Francia, and achieved increasing prominence under
the rule of the House of Capet, founded by Hugh Capet in
987
Normans

 Vikings or “Northmen” raided coastal settlements,

colonized Normandy, a territory named after them, and in
1066 conquered England, installing Duke
William⎯William the Conqueror⎯as King of England.
 In the meantime, from 987 and for the next 350 years, an
unbroken line of Capetian kings added to their domain, the
region surrounding Paris known as the Île-de-France
Economic growth

 As royal power gained ground against the feudal lords, the

great monastic orders and emerging towns fueled an
economic and cultural flowering.
 By 1328 and the accession of Philip VI, the first of the
Valois kings, France boasted the highest achievements of
medieval European culture⎯its Romanesque and Gothic
architecture⎯and was the most powerful nation in Europe,
with a population of 15 million.
The Hundred Years’War (1337
to 1453)
 Tensions between the crowns of France and England can be
traced back to the origins of the English royal family itself,
which was French (Norman, and later, Angevin) in origin.
 For this reason, English monarchs had historically held not
only the English Crown, but also titles and lands within
France, the possession of which made them vassals to the
kings of France
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCDgLC1DV3o
The Hundred Years’ War
(1337 to 1453)
 disputed territorial and dynastic claims between France and
England
 A succession crisis following the death of the last direct Capetian
monarch in 1328 led to the series of conflicts known as the
Hundred Years' War between the House of Valois and the House
of Plantagenet
 Despite early Plantagenet victories, fortunes turned in favor of the
Valois later in the war.
 Among the notable figures of the war was Joan of Arc, a French
peasant girl who led French forces against the English, establishing
herself as a national heroine. The war ended with a Valois victory
in 1453.
France in 1477
Provinces of France (15c.)
Territory in 15th c.

 In the mid-15th century, France was significantly smaller

than it is today, and numerous border provinces were either
autonomous or belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, the
Crown of Aragon, or the Kingdom of Navarra
Fragmentation

 Despite efforts by the kings to create a centralized state out

of these provinces, France in this period remained a
patchwork of local privileges and historical differences.
 The arbitrary power of the monarch was limited by historic
and regional particularities.
 Administrative (including taxation), legal, judicial, and
ecclesiastic divisions and prerogatives frequently
overlapped
Ancien Régime (15th century
until 1789)
 Victory in the Hundred Years' War had the effect of
strengthening French nationalism and increasing the power
of the French monarchy.
 During the Ancien Régime, France was transformed into a
centralized absolute monarchy.
 French political power reached a zenith under the rule of
Louis XIV, "The Sun King", builder of Versailles Palace.
Centralization (15-17 c.)

 The desire for more efficient tax collection was one of the
major causes for French administrative and royal
centralization in the early modern period
Ancien Régime (15th century
until 1789)
 One key to centralization was the replacing of personal
patronage systems organized around the king and other
nobles by institutional systems around the state.
 The creation of intendants—representatives of royal power
in the provinces—did much to undermine local control by
regional nobles.
Ancien Régime (15th century
until 1789)
 The creation of regional parliaments' had initially the same
goal of facilitating the introduction of royal power into
newly assimilated territories, but as the parlements gained
in self-assurance, they began to be sources of disunity.
 Parlements: courts of justice and tribunals with certain
political functions varying from province to province and as
to whether the local law was based on Roman, or customary
law
Ancien Régime (15th century
until 1789)
 By the 18th century, royal administrative power was firmly
established in the provinces, despite protestations by local
parlements.
 In addition to their role as appellate courts, regional
parlements had gained the privilege to register the edicts of
the king and to present the king with official complaints
concerning the edicts;
 The word "Parliament", in the modern meaning of the term,
appeared in France in the 19th century, at the time of the
constitutional monarchy of 1830–1848
Colonial expansion

 A burgeoning worldwide colonial empire was established in

the 16th century.
Colonial expanison: 16th
century
 During the 16th century, the king began to claim North
American territories and established several colonies.
 Jacques Cartier - one of the great explorers who ventured
deep into American territories in the 16th century.
Colonial expansion: 17th c.

 The early 17th c. saw the first successful French settlements

in the New World with the voyages of Samuel de
Champlain
 The largest settlement was New France, with the towns of
Quebec City (1608) and Montreal (fur trading post in 1611,
Roman Catholic mission established in 1639, and colony
founded in 1642)
Absolute monarchy: Louis XIV
(1643-1715)
 Louis believed in the divine right of kings: a monarch is
above everyone except God, and is therefore not answerable
to the will of his people, the aristocracy, or the Church.
 continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralized
state governed from Paris, sought to eliminate remnants of
feudalism, and subjugated and weakened the aristocracy.
 Thus he consolidated absolute monarchical rule in France
that endured until the French Revolution.
 His reign saw France involved in many wars that drained its
treasury.
The Enlightenement – the Age of Reason
(1715-1789)

 While the state expanded, new Enlightenment ideas

flourished.
 Montesquieu proposed the separation of powers.
 Voltaire, Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The
Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Rights - a
catalyst for governmental and societal reform throughout
Europe.
 Diderot's great Encyclopedia reshaped the European world
view.
Causes of the French
Revolution
 Deteriorating economic conditions and popular resentment
against the system of privileges and tax exemptions enjoyed
by the nobility and clergy were among the principal causes
of the French Revolution (1789–94).
The French Revolution

 Although France in 1785 faced economic difficulties,

mostly concerning the equitability of taxation, it was one of
the richest and most powerful nations of Europe.
 The French people also enjoyed more political freedom and
a lower incidence of arbitrary punishment than many of
their fellow Europeans.
 However, Louis XVI, his ministers, and the widespread
French nobility had become immensely unpopular.
 In 1789, the Ancien Régime was violently overthrown by
the French Revolution.
The French Revolution

 Revolutionary ideals⎯especially ideals of nationhood and

universal rights⎯long proved a powerful influence on the
development of national movements elsewhere in the world.
 Inspired by liberal and radical ideas, the Revolution altered
the course of modern history, triggering the global decline
of absolute monarchies while replacing them with republics
and liberal democracies
 France’s own first experiment in republican and egalitarian
government fell into turmoil, culminating in the “Reign of
Terror”
Napoleon’s rule (1804-1814)

 Napoleon centralized power in Paris, with all the provinces

governed by all-powerful prefects whom he selected.
 They were more powerful than royal intendants of the
ancien régime and had a long-term impact in unifying the
nation, minimizing regional differences, and shifting all
decisions to Paris
 The French taxation system had collapsed in the 1780s. In
the 1790s the government seized and sold church lands and
lands of exiled aristocrats. Napoleon instituted a modern,
efficient tax system that guaranteed a steady flow of
revenues and made long-term financing possible
Napoleon’s reforms: the army

 Napoleon kept the system of conscription that had been

created in the 1790s, so that every young man served in the
army, which could be rapidly expanded even as it was based
on a core of careerists and talented officers. Before the
Revolution the aristocracy formed the officer corps. Now
promotion was by merit and achievement—every private
carried a marshal's baton, it was said
 The modern era of French education began in the 1790s
Napoleonic Code (1804)

 created by eminent jurists under Napoleon's supervision.

 Praised for its clarity, it spread rapidly throughout Europe
and the world, and marked the end of feudalism and the
liberation of serfs where it took effect.

Napoleonic Code (1804)

 The Code recognized the principles of civil liberty, equality

before the law, and the secular character of the state.
 It discarded the old right of primogeniture (where only the
eldest son inherited) and required that inheritances be
divided equally among all the children.
 The court system was standardized; all judges were
appointed by the national government in Paris
Permanent changes in the
French society
 France became highly centralized, with all decisions made
in Paris.
 The complex multiple overlapping legal jurisdictions of the
old regime – abolished
 one standardized legal code, administered by judges
appointed by Paris, and supported by police under national
control.
Permanent changes in the
French society
 Education -centralized, with the Grande Master of the
University of France controlling every element of the entire
educational system from Paris.
 New technical universities were opened in Paris which to
this day have a critical role in training the elite.
History of law: Fall of the
Western Roman Empire
 Rome and its empire collapsed in the 5th century, but
Roman law survived in Gaul at various levels and in
different forms.
History of law

 In France the legal development in the north differed from

that in the south. The regional customs in the north were
made up of Germanic and Roman law, the Carolingian
capitularies, and canon law, but Germanic elements
predominated.
 In the south, the so-called pays de droit écrit (“land of
written law”), where Gallo-Romans had been far more
numerous than Franks, the custom of each district was
based mainly on the vulgar law of the Lex Romana
Visigothorum
 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Germanic-law
Lex Romana Visigothorum

 The Lex Romana Visigothorum, or Breviary of Alaric,

was issued in 506 AD for their Roman subjects. It was a
compilation of “vulgar Roman law”
 It had the effect of preserving the traditions of Roman law
in Aquitania and Gallia Narbonensis, which became
Provence and Septimania thus reinforcing their sense of
enduring continuity, broken in the Frankish north
Reception of Roman law in the
south
 French legal system, particularly in the south, - receptive to
the revived Roman law that was being studied and taught in
the universities of northern Italy at the dawn of the
Renaissance.
 This new approach to medieval Roman law began to
provide a unifying force to what had been a fragmented,
localized condition of law in all of France.
Reception of Roman law in the
south
 By the 13th century, the southern half of France was
controlled by droit ecrit, a mixture of Visigothic Roman law
combined with more modern treatments of the Corpus juris
developed by Italian and southern French scholars and
enormously influenced by the rigorous approach of the late
medieval canonists.
Germanic custom in the north

 In the north and west (the regions where Frankish and

Burgundian monarchs had set the stage for legal
development), the droit coutumier, based on Germanic
custom and tradition, prevailed
Customary law in the north

 During the Middle Ages and early modern period, while

Roman law was achieving ascendancy in the rest of Europe,
the French kings, and even their vassals, determinedly
independent of the Holy Roman Empire, constantly asserted
the importance and primacy of customary law, especially in
the lands north and west of Paris.
 Considerable difficulties in government and administration
attended this fragmented approach.
Coutumes de Paris

 France was an emerging nation-state with rulers especially

intent upon achieving centralization of authority.
 Diversity in the laws created obstacles to social and
economic relationships in the increasingly mobile French
society.
 A measure of standardization was inevitable. By the 16th
century the dominance of the coutumes of Paris (first
published in 1510) had been achieved in all areas except
Normandy, Burgundy and Brittainy.
Customary law

 The Paris coutumes gradually became the standard applied

throughout France, even in preference to Roman law.
 With the general acceptance/imposition of a fixed format for
customary law, further development of this type of law was
halted by the late 1500s.
Jus comune (16th c.)

 The great diversity of French differing from region to

region - a challenge to the absolutist tendencies of modern
French governments which aspired to centralization of
power and unity of laws.
 Canon law was a vehicle for the unification process,
bringing order and consistency to private civil and
commercial law, and by the 16th century, Romano-canonic
law had begun to emerge as a potential jus commune for
France. with principles of natural law.
Jus comune

 The task of developing a sophisticated and workable droit

commun, combining both customary laws and written
(Roman or canon) law was taken on by a few scholars,
particularly the 16th century writer Charles DuMoulin.
 His commentaries on customary laws and a synthesis of
Roman law with contemporary practice influenced the
movement towards creation of a unified French law.
First systematizations of law

 In the 17th c. Jean Domat (1625 – 1696) continued the

tradition by producing a monumental work that successfully
reordered all existing French law in accordance with
principles of natural law.
 His work was in line with earlier Humanist attempts to
transform the seemingly random historical sources of law
into a rational system of rules
First systematizations of law

 Domat’s Lois civiles dans leur ordre naturel appeared in

1689, by which time, taking his and DuMoulin’s example,
the kings of France had already begun to produce a
considerable body of legislation on private (civil and
commercial) law.
Systematizations of law

 This process was further affected by the work of the third

great scholar, Robert Joseph Pothier, whose vast oeuvre
spanning the mid-18th century covered both Roman law and
modern civil law.
 By the last decades of the ancien regime, compilations,
types of codifications, of thousands of lois, ordonnances
and edits that were still in existence and in force in 1789,
were produced
Towards the unification of law

 French law was already substantially unified due to the

work of scholars whose doctrines had set the stage for
unification
 the government had received and modernized the laws and
the courts, the parlements that interpreted and reconciled the
regional and local customs with Roman and canon law and
the growing body of national legislation
The revolutionary period

 France in the revolutionary period (1789 - 1803) was the

scene of dramatic and violent alteration to the social order.
 The institutions of the ancien regime were overthrown
 A frenzied effort to fill the void left by the obliteration of
the old order was the droit intermediaire.
Intermediate law

 Intermediate law is that of the revolutionary era,

 The revolutionaries elaborated numerous, and often well
drafted, laws which though not a complete substitute for the
ancient law, very largely supplanted it in a number of areas
(law of persons, property, succession, etc)
Towards unification: the
Empire
 This, together with the advent of political centralisation,
opened the way for the elaboration of a single legislative
system for the whole of France.
 Efforts were made to achieve this end but they failed several
times, and were only successful during the first years of the
Empire.
Napolen

 During the early revolutionary period, the Constituent

Assembly, recognizing the need for unifying private law,
commenced work on various drafts and proposals for broad
codifications.
 Napoleon took the initiative and appointed a commission of
scholars to draft a civil code.
Napoleon’s Code

 In 1801 Napoleon reconstituted the commission and quickly

procured a first draft, which, after two years of study and
careful legislative revision, was promulgated as the Code
civil des Francais and came into force in 1804, the last year
of the First Republic.
Napoleon’s Code

 Napoleon played a major role in its compilation: he

participated in many meetings of the drafting committee; the
clarity and comprehensibility of the language has been
attributed to his insistence that the code be understandable
and meaningful to a layman and not just to lawyers and
scholars
Code Civil

 It has been termed intellectually the most significant and

historically the most fertile of the codes that came into force
in western and central Europe in the first years of the 19th
century. The setting is described even more vividly by the
great comparativist Rene David: 
Significance of Napoleon’s
Code
 „For codification to be successful two conditions had to be
fulfilled. It had first of all to be the work of an enlightened
sovereign, one unhampered by the past and willing even at
the expense of the privileges of an older order to establish
the new principles of justice, freedom and dignity of the
individual which, politically, the Natural Law School
maintained must be the basis of society. The new
compilations also had to be established in a country
powerful enough to exercise an inescapable influence over
others that is, in France immediately after the revolution
and in association with the new ideals of 1789 and the
prestige of Napoleonic expansion”
Significance of Napoleon’s
Code
 From a practical point of view, the Civil Code achieved the
unification of French civil law.
 This was not, however, the only concern of its drafters.
They shared with most of their contemporaries and with
most modern French lawyers the belief that the law should
be written in clear language so that it would be accessible to
every citizen. This view implied that the new code had to be
complete in its field, setting forth general rules and
arranging them logically.
Civil Code

 The Civil Code - organized as a series of short articles

because it was assumed, first, that legislators could not
foresee all circumstances that might arise in life and,
second, that only conciseness could make the code flexible
enough to adapt old principles to new circumstances.
Civil Code

 The general rules contained in the code have since been

applied to concrete circumstances without much difficulty.
 When an interpretation has been required, the courts have
had the responsibility to give it, taking into consideration
the “spirit” of the code in an effort to apply to each case the
solution that would have been desired by the legislator
Other codes

 The synthesization of civil law was followed by a sequence

of imperial legislation:
 a code of civil procedure in 1806,
 a commercial code in 1807,
 a code of criminal procedure in 1808 and a
 criminal code in 1810.
 This body of law has survived intact in form and outline,
although greatly changed in substance into the last years of
the 20th century
Reforms

 The civil procedure code has been in the process of reform

since the 1970s, and the draconian criminal procedure code
was modified even in the 19th century along with the penal
code, with the former being replaced by a new version in
1957.
Significance of imperial
legislation
 The French civil code and its attendant imperial legislation
now provides the historical core for the the modern civil
law tradition
19th century law

 Throughout the 19th century, the development of French

law was directed and shaped by an increasing body of
doctrine.
 The writings of scholars provided interpretation for what
remained a dynamic and responsive legal system, eventually
securing a sophisticated and well-formulated system of
legislation accessible to all and capable of being
reformulated to meet the ever-changing needs of society.
Contemporary French law

 Contemporary French law - characterized by a fascination

with the nuances of administrative law in all its guises,
particularly the centralization of government and power.
 The nation’s legal development has been greatly affected by
its participation in the legislative programs of the European
Union since the creation of this supra-national body in
1957.
History of the French language

 Vulgar Latin in Gallia

 Old French (8C-14C)
 Middle French (14-17C)
 Modern French
Vulgar Latin in Gallia

 Due to Roman rule, Latin was gradually adopted by the

inhabitants of Gaul, and as the language was learned by the
common people it developed a distinct local character, with
grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere,
some of which being attested on graffiti.
 This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance
languages, which include French and its closest relatives
Vulgar Latin in Gallia

 The Celtic Gaulish language is thought to have survived

into the 6th century in France, despite considerable
Romanization.
 Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar
Latin dialects that developed into French, with effects
including loanwords and calques (including oui, the word
for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and
influences in conjugation and word order.
Old French (8C -14C)

 The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by

Germanic invasions into the country.
 These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part
of the country and on the language there.
 A language divide began to grow across the country. The
population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the
population in the south spoke langue d'oc.

Old French

 The pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax of the Vulgar

Latin spoken in Roman Gaul in Late Antiquity  - modified
by the Old Frankish Language spoken by the Franks  who
settled in Gaul from the 5th century and conquered the
entire Old French-speaking area by the 530s.
 The name français itself is derived from the name the
Franks.
Old French

  The Old Frankonian influence - believed to be responsible

for the differences between the langue d′oïl and the langue
d’oc (Occitan), since various parts of Northern France
remained bilingual between vulgar Latin and Germanic for
some time, and these areas correspond precisely to where
the first documents in Old French were written.
 This Germanic language influenced the popular Latin
spoken here and gave it a very distinctive identity compared
to the other future Romance languages.
Old French

 Due to contacts with Celtic and Germanic early French

underwent a process of more rapid change then other
Romance languages of the period
Old French

 Langue d'oïl grew into what is known as Old French.

 Old French shared many characteristics with Latin, e.g. Old
French made use of all possible word orders just as Latin
did
Earliest documents in the
vernacular
 At the third Council of Tours (813), priests were ordered to
preach in the vernacular (either Romance or Germanic),
since the common people could no longer understand
formal Latin

 The earliest documents in the Gallo-Romance that presages

French are the Oaths of Strasbourg (treaties and charters of
King Charles the Bald 842):
Oaths of Strasbourg

 mutual pledges of allegiance between Louis the German

(†876), ruler of East Francia, and his half-brother Charles
the Bald (†877), ruler of West Francia made on 12 February
842.
 They are written in three languages: Medieval Latin, Old
Gallo-Romance and Old High German
 The Romance passages are considered to be the earliest
texts in a language that is distinctly Gallo-Romance.
Oaths of Strasbourg

 Louis spoke his oath in the Romance language of Charles'

realm, while Charles spoke his oath in lingua teudisca,
Germanic, of Louis' realm.[
 Each king then swore his individual oath in front of their
assembled armies, not in Latin nor in his own language, but
in the vernacular of the other's kingdom. Finally, the armies
swore separate pledges in their respective languages
From the Oaths of Strasbourg

 Pro Deo amur et pro Christian poblo et nostro commun

salvament, d’ist di en avant, in quant Deus savir et podir me
dunat, si salvarai eo cist meon fradre Karlo, et in aiudha et
in cadhuna cosa...
 For the love of God and for the Christian people, and our
common salvation, from this day forward, as God will give
me the knowledge and the power, I will defend my brother
Charles with my help in everything…
The origins of standard French

 The royal House of Capet founded in 987, inaugurated the

development of northern French culture in and around Île-
de-France, which slowly asserted its ascendency over the
more southerly areas.
 The langue d'oïl, the forerunner of modern standard French,
did not begin to become the common speech of all of
France, however, until after the French Revolution 
Middle French

 Although most peasants in France spoke local dialects, an

official language emerged in Paris and the French language
became the preferred language of Europe's aristocracy.
 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (born in 1500) quipped, "I
speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and
German to my horse
Middle French (14-17c.)

 Within Old French the Francien dialect is one that not only
continued but also thrived during the Middle French period
(14th century–17th century).
 Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect.
 Grammatically, noun declensions were lost and there began
to be standardized rules.
 Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary,
which included information about phonetics, etymology,
and grammar.
 Politically, the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539)
proclaimed French the language of law.
Middle French (14-17c.)

 Because of its international status, there was a desire to

regulate the French language.
 Several reforms of the French language worked to make it
more uniform.
 The Renaissance writer François Rabelais (born 1494)
helped to shape French as a literary language; his French is
characterised by the re-introduction of Greek and Latin
words.
Modern French (17c.-)

 During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most

important language of diplomacy and international relations
(lingua franca).
 It retained this role until cc. the mid- 20th century, when it
was replaced by English as the United States became the
dominant global power following the Second World War.
 Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact
that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well
as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the
language
Modern French

 During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the

rule of powerful leaders enjoyed a period of prosperity and
prominence among European nations.
 Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the
French language.
 By the early 1800’s Parisian French had become the
standard
Eradicating minority langages

 At the end of the 18th c. the French government began to

pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating minority
and regional languages (patois) spoken in France.
 This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire's "Report on the
necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to
universalise the use of the French language"..
Imposing standard French

 When public education was made compulsory, only French

was taught and the use of any other (patois) language was
punished.
Imposing standard French

 The goals of the Public School System were made

especially clear to the French speaking teachers sent to
teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany:
 "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in
order to kill the Breton language" were instructions given
from a French official to teachers in the French department
of western Brittany).
Imposing standard French

 The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque

Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country
are particularly meant to substitute the Basque language
with French...".
 Students were taught that their ancestral languages were
inferior and they should be ashamed of them;
History of Legal French:
Beginnings
 In 13th c. French widely used in northern France
 Mid-13th c. French was established language for legal
documents, at least in the north
 Expansion of French began after the Hundred Years War
(1337-1453), which had increased the power of the king of
France
 Linguistic unification – highly useful from the standpoint of
the exercise of power
History of Legal French:
Beginnings
 Legal and administrative language of Paris began to
challenge Latin earlier than any other language
 The government and the courts played an important role in
the development of French; much of their vocabulary
transmitted to ordinary language
 French orthography also goes back to the practices of
administrative and judicial organs
Discarding Regional Languages

 Decree of Lyon (1510) still refers to langue de pays

 Decree of Viller-Cotterêt (1539) introduces French
explicitly
 The Revolution: Judgements and other legal documents had
to be drawn up in French, old languages of provinces
excluded; protests in non-French speaking regions
 At the time of the Revolution, 25 million inhabitants: 6
million did not understand French, 6 million understood it at
the basic level, 10 million had a passable knowledge of
French
Discarding Regional Languages

 Revolutionary decrees obliged civil

servants to use French and draw up all
public documents in it
 French – the language of the army
 Compulsory military service, the press,
postal services and railways increased the
movement of the population and
consolidated the central administration
Origins of legal terms

 Latin terms transmitted from Antiquity by continuous

tradition (loi<lex, juge <judex, justice < iustitia, délit <
delictum, société<societas)
 Medieval Latin: contumace < contumax ‘contempt’, ‘non-
appearance in court’
 Greek: démocratie, politique
 Neologisms which were never used in Latin or Greek:
autogestion, monoparental; today, legal neologisms of
Graeco-Latin origin often come from English
Legal French Style: Text
construction
 Cartesian spirit: texts constructed in a
logical way
 Legalrules – systematically
assembled in codes
Legal Style: Textual Level

 Legal texts – difficult to understand:

 complicated sentences,
 impersonal expressions,
 passive
 double negation (il n’est pas exclu que ‘ it is not impossible
that’);
 abundance of nouns;
 stereotyped phrases (e.g. dont acte ‘in
witness/faith/verification’),
 archaisms, petrified expressions (ci-après ‘hereafter’, ledit,
susdit ‘aforesaid’
Improving the quality of legal
language
 Association pour le bon usage du français dans
l’administration, Commission de modernisation du langage
judiciaire, Centre d’enregistrement et de révision des
formulaires administratifs
 Terms felt to be discriminatory – replaced
 Courts should eliminate useless repetitions
 Latin maxims should be reduced
 Clarity of legal language
 Today: struggle against Anglicisms
Radiation of French Legal
Culture
 The Civil Code (1804)- a model for
corresponding codes in various countries
(Rhineland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy,
Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Poland,
Rumania)
 French administrative law contributed to
the birth of German administrative legal
science in the late 19th c.
Globalisation of Legal French:
Diplomacy
 The Holy Roman Empire insisted on
the use of Latin, while French
ambassadors presented documents in
French
 From 1676, all ambassadors of
France spoke French in their
countries of accreditation
Globalisation of Legal French:
Diplomacy
 Untilthe 17th c. Latin was the main
language of inter-state relations
 Bilateraland multilateral treaties – drawn
up in Latin
 Following the rise of France to a dominant
position, the use of French spread as a
language of diplomacy and international
law
Globalisation of Legal French:
Diplomacy
 End of 18th c: the US decided to use only
English in their diplomatic relations;
 20th c. English began to threaten the
position of French in international
relations, and acquired dominance in this
field
Legal French in Switzerland

 Legal French of Switzerland – partly

original with respect to Legal French of
France
 Fusion of Germanic and Romance legal
cultures
Legal French in Belgium

 French-speaking part of Belgium has

tended until recently to look for
inspiration almost exclusively to the
legal culture of France, rather than to
the legal culture of Dutch-speaking
Belgium
Canada
Colonisation: Canada

 16th c. France became a colonial power: colonies in North

America
 French Canada (1534-1760)
 British Canada (1760-1867)
 “Canadian Canada” (1867-)
Colonisation: Canada

 History of legal language – closely linked to legal

translation
 Before the British conquest - Canadian French – high
quality
 After the British conquest - poor translators corrupted the
language; Translators – no specialised training
 Laws were prepared exclusively in English until 1867
Colonisation: Canada

 Between the early 1790’s and the mid-19th c. legal French

in Canada moved very far from that in France
 Legal English – expressed a completely different legal
culture
 French-Canadian legal texts – full of anglicisms (acte ‘loi’
(act), délai ‘retard’ (delay); évidence ‘preuve’ (evidence),
offence ‘infraction’ (offence)
Canada today: bilingualism

 Both English and French – official languages of Canada, but

only at the level of the federal government and its
institutions
 Legal texts of the Canadian parliament – always translated
into both languages
 Drafts of Canadian federal laws – worked out
simultaneously in English and French: co-drafting
 The quality of the original draft – more easily revealed by
comparing the two language versions than by examining a
single version
International Homogeneity of
Legal French: Canada
 Quebec: common law of English origin
intermingles with law of French origin: mixed law
 Public law comes from common law, private law
is mainly continental
 A French-style notarial profession – an important
element of the Quebec legal system
 Hierarchy of sources of law - continental
International Homogeneity of
Legal French: Canada
 Quebec legal French: the need to express
traditional common law concepts in French
and vice versa
 Insome cases – terms from French law
obtained a meaning different from that in
France: danger of mistakes and
misunderstandings in communications
with France
International Homogeneity of
Legal French: Canada
 Terminological work enabled compilation of legal
dictionaries containing, in French, the terminology of
various branches of common law (e.g. law of property,
trusts, torts)
 “The mixed character of Quebec legal French is also in
evidence in the fact that Latin maxims appearing in this
form of French come both from the traditional Latin of
common lawyers and from the Latin used as established in
France.”
Francophone Africa
Colonisation: Africa

 19th c. French colonies in North Africa and Black Africa

 multilingual regions
 French – the sole official language in 19th c.
 In today’s Maghreb, only Arabic is the official language;
Sub-Saharan Africa

 French – sole official language in Benin, Burkina Faso, the

Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), the Republic of
Congo (Brazzaville), the Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Mali,
Senegal, Chad, Togo
 Traditional justice, based on customary law and
administered by village elders – African languages
 In Rwanda and Burundi- government and local courts use
regional languages, while the central authorities and higher
courts use French
International Homogeneity of Legal
French: Africa
 Sub-Saharan Africa – customary laws
 The French colonial power codified some of these
 Customary laws – inadequate for modern society;
completed by French law
 France abolished customary rules if they were in
contradiction with the fundamental European values, esp. in
criminal law
 French Criminal Code – applicable throughout French-ruled
Africa
International Position Today

 In a large part of the world French is still the official

language (Canada, Northern, Western, Central Africa)
 In Europe: Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg
 Establishment of the European Communities – new
importance of French: one of three procedural languages
 Global organisations
International organisations

 49% international organisations accord French the status of

official language
 International organisations for legislative harmonisation:
e.g. the Hague Conference on Private International Law,
charged with drafting conventjons in private international
law and international procedural law; until 1960, draft
conventions only drawn up in French; today, French and
English are used
International organisations

 Unidroit (Institute international pour l’unification du drolit

privé) – originally attached to the League of Nations, today
and international organisation aiming to unify national
legislation on private international law; previously operated
only in French; currently, several languages possess the
official status; English and French used as working
languages; Revue de droit uniforme/Uniform Law Review -
bilingual
EU

 French – important in preparation of EU legal rules

 Working language of ECJ: decisions drawn up in French,
although only the version in the procedural language is
authentic
 French language division has to translate into French all
documents lodged by parties in a language other than
French
 Legal culture and techniques - received from the outset from
France: it is always simple to describe a legal system by
using the language by which the system was originally
created
Legal English
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
Preview

 Historical development of English

 Language contacts in the history of English
 The spread of English
 Development of common law
 Development of legal English
Migrations of Angles, Saxons
and Jutes (c. 5th c.)
Viking invasions (c.9th c.)
SCANDINAVIAN PLACE
NAMES
The Norman Conquest (1066)
HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE
 OLD ENGLISH (c. 450- c. 1100)
 MIDDLE ENGLISH (c. 1100- c.1450)
 MODERN ENGLISH (c. 1450 - )
LATER OLD ENGLISH (c. 850 -
c.1100) Language Contacts
 OLD NORSE
 Lexical words
 Nouns: birth, bull, dirt, egg, fellow, husband, leg, sister, skin, sky,
skirt, window
 Adjectives: ill, low, odd, rotten, sly, weak
 Verbs: call, crawl, die, get, give, lift, raise, scream, take,
 Function words
 Pronouns: they (their, them)
 Conjunctions: though
 Determiners: some, any
 Auxiliaries: are
 Names
 Family names: -son: Johnson, Stevenson
 Place names: -by 'farm, town': Derby, Rugby, Whitby; -thorp 'village':
Althorp, Linthorp
Anglo-Saxon Period:
customary law
 Verbal magic
 Acts of transfer required complicated and precise language
rituals; a single mistake could nullify the act
 Use of rhythmic expressions, alliteration, binary expressions
Birth of Common Law

 After the Norman conquest (1066)

 To consolidate his dominance, the king sought to centralise
the justice system by establishing the Royal Courts of
Justice at Westminster
 Royal Courts adjudicated cases within the king’s
competence
 Progressively, increasing categories of cases transferred to
these Courts
Birth of Common Law

 Court judgments - importance that went beyond the

particular cases in which they had been pronounced
 To specify the conditions and limits of the binding effect of
judgments, a refined rule of precedent was progressively
created
 The legal system built by case law strengthened the position
of judges
Dominance of Law Latin

 The Norman Conquest brought to

England a French-speaking upper
class
 Latin – dominant in law
 11-12 c. Latin was the language of
legal documents in England
Dominance of Law Latin

 In this period – common law was created

 Many essential common law terms were originally
formulated in Latin (e.g. breve ‘writ’)
 Meaning diverged from that of classical Latin
Rise of Law French

 1st law promulgated in French in 1275

 End of 13th c. both Latin and French used as legislative
languages
 Early 14th c. French used in drafting laws (except in Church
matters)
 Late 13th c. the Royal Courts used French during sessions;
case reports – prepared in French
 French became the legal language in England from the late
13th c., both for legislation and the law courts
MIDDLE ENGLISH (c. 1100-1450)
French Influence
 Administration
 Authority, bailiff, baron, chamberlain, chancellor, constable, council,
court, crown, duke, empire, exchequer, government, liberty, majesty,
mayor, messenger, minister, noble, palace, parliament, prince, realm,
reign, revenue, royal, servant, sir, sovereign, statute, tax, traitor,
treason, treasurer, treaty
 Law
 Accuse, advocate, arrest, arson, assault, assize, attorney, bail, bar,
blame, convict, crime, decree, depose, estate, evidence, executor,
felon, fine, fraud, heir, indictment, inquest, jail, judge, jury, justice,
larceny, legacy, libel, pardon, perjury, plaintiff, plea, prison,
punishment, sue, summons, trespass, verdict, warrant
 Military
 Ambush, archer, army, battle, besiege, captain, combat, defend,
enemy, garrison, guard, lance, lieutenant, navy, retreat, sergeant,
siege, soldier, vanquish
Decline of Law Latin and Law
French
 1362 Statute of Pleading “All lawsuits shall be conducted in
English, because French is much unknown in the said
realm” – drafted in French! –
 According to Sir Edward Coke, it was better that the
unlearned were not able to read legal materials because they
would get it all wrong and harm themselves!
 French and Latin finally abolished in 1731
Latin influence

 shortened expressions:
 Nisi prius (‘unless before’) = a matter of proceedings at first
instance with a jury present
 Affidavit (‘he affirmed’) = ‘a written or printed declaration
confirmed by an oath’
 Habeas corpus (‘you may have the body’) = a judge’s order
to bring a prisoner before the court to clarify the legality of
detaining him
French influence

 Influence on word formation:

 Old French past participle: -e or –ee
 Doer of the action: -or/-er (for the person obtaining sth or
forming the object of an action Employer/employee,
trustor/trustee, vendor/vendee
 Word order (Accounts payable, attorney general, court
martial, fee simple, letters patent)
Leal language: synonyms

 Binary expressions: words with the same meaning existed at

the same time in the form of Latin-French variants and
Anglo-Saxon variants .
 Repetitions ensured that legal messages were
understandable in a multilingual society
 Acknowledge and confess, act and deed, devise and
bequeath, fit and proper, goods and chattels, will and
testament
 null and void and of no effect, authorized, empowered and
entitled to
 To tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
Richard Mulcaster (1582)

 “The English tongue is of small account, stretching no

further than this island of ours, nay not there over all.”
THE SPREAD OF ENGLISH
The global spread of common
law
Legal English in the United
States
 The influence of English law – terminated with the
independence
 Nevertheless, the approach to the legal order, fundamental
principles and concepts of law, essential legal terminology -
the same in England and the US
American legal culture

 Fundamental ideas in line with the English tradition

 1) supremacy of the law (rule of law)
 2) rule of precedent
 3) adversarial procedure
American legal tradition

 Separation of powers: the system of checks and balances

 federalism
Legal English in the Indian Sub-
continent: Anglo-Indian law

 Common law took root alongside the traditional systems of

law: Hindu law and Muslim law – application limited to
traditional branches of law (family law, inheritance)
 19th c. Laws were prepared by the British, often in London
 The highest judicial organ: the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council (London)
Expansion and Change of legal
English in India
 English – language of higher education and colonial
administration
 1837 English became the official language in India
 From 1844 only those educated in English could be
appointed civil servants
 After the independence – Hindi and English are official
languages
English as the global language Tripartite
model (B. Kachru)
English as a Global Language

 Some 1,200-1,500 million people in command of English;

670 million native speakers
 English – official language in 75 states or administrative
territories
 85% international organisations use English as one of their
languages
 Dominance in international trade
Summary

 After the fall of Western Roman Empire : development of Roman

law was disrupted, but Latin remained the only written language
 Continental Europe: development of ius comune based on Roman
law
 England: development of common law – a native product of
England
 Invention of the press (1455)
 Emergence of nation-states
 Development of standard national languages
 International expansion of national languages and legal systems