Interpretation of Law in the Age of Enlightenment

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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3. Iroduction

   1. Judicial Interpretation in Transition from the Ancien Régime to Constitutionalism

      • Michael Stolleis

      Pages 3-17

4. The Case of France

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

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5. The case of France

   1. Legal Interpretation in France Under the Reign of Louis XVI: A Review of the Gazette des tribunaux

      • Jean-Louis Halpérin

      Pages 21-43

   2. Legal Interpretation and the Use of Legal Literature in 18th Century Law Reports of the “Parlement” de Flandre

      • Serge Dauchy

      Pages 45-57

6. The Case of Germany

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 59-59

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7. The case of Germany

   1. The Object of Interpretation: Legislation and Competing Normative Sources of Law in Europe During the 16th to 18th Centuries

      • Heinz Mohnhaupt

      Pages 61-89

   2. The Concept and Means of Legal Interpretation in the 18th Century

      • Jan Schröder

      Pages 91-105

   3. “Needs” – Pandectists Between Norm and Reality

      • Hans -Peter Haferkamp

      Pages 107-121

8. The Nature of Legal Interpretation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 123-123

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   2. Interpretation by Another Name

      • Morigiwa Yasutomo

      Pages 125-138

   3. What Is Interpretation of the Law for the French Judge?

      • Michel Troper

      Pages 139-151

   4. The Craft of Legal Interpretation

      • W. Bradley Wendel

      Pages 153-178

9. Concluding Remarks

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 179-179

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   2. Legal Interpretation in 18th Century Europe: Doctrinal Debates Versus Political Change

      • Jean-Louis Halpérin

      Pages 181-187

10. Back Matter

    Pages 189-193

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A collaboration of leading historians of European law and philosophers of law and politics identifying and explaining the practice of interpretation of law in the 18th century. The goal: establishing the actual practice in the Age of Enlightenment, and explaining why this was the case. The ideology of the Age was that law, i.e., the will of the sovereign, can be explicitly and appropriately stated, thus making interpretation redundant. However, the reality was that in the 18th century, there was no one leading source of national law that would be the object of interpretation. Instead, there was a plurality of sources of law: the Roman Law, local customary law, and the royal ordinance. However, in deciding a case in a court of law, the law must speak with one voice. Hence, interpretation to unify the norms was inevitable. What was the process? What role did justification in terms of reason, the hallmark of the Enlightenment, play? These are some of the questions addressed.

• Age of Enlightenment
• Ancien Régime
• Case Law Book
• Constitutionalism
• Customary Law
• Enlightenment
• Gazette des Tribunaux
• Hermeneutic
• Hobbes
• Interpretation in Law
• Interpretation in the 18th Century
• Judicial Interpretation
• Judicial Power
• Legal Interpretation
• Legal Texts
• Leibniz
• Natural Law
• Pandectists
• Private Laws
• Public Laws
• Reason in Decisions
• Roman Law
• Royal Ordinance

• , Graduate School of Law, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

  Yasutomo Morigiwa

• Max-Planck-Institut fuer europaeische Re, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

  Michael Stolleis

• , EHESS, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France

  Jean-Louis Halperin

Policies and ethics