Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CHAP. XXXIX.: The same Subject continued. - Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws

Return to Title Page for Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws

Search this Title:

CHAP. XXXIX.: The same Subject continued. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws [1748]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 2.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


CHAP. XXXIX.

The same Subject continued.

THE judiciary forms introduced by St. Lewis fell into disuse. This prince had not so much in view the thing itself, that is, the best manner of trying causes, as the best manner of supplying the ancient practice of trial. The principal intent was to give a disrelish of the ancient jurisprudence, and the next to form a new one. But when the inconveniencies of the latter appeared, another soon succeeded.

The institutions of St. Lewis did not therefore so much change the French jurisprudence, as they afforded the means of changing it; they opened new tribunals, or rather ways to come at them. And when once the public had easy access to the superior courts, the judgments which before constituted only the usages of a particular lordship, formed an universal digest. By means of the institutions, they had obtained general decisions, which were entirely wanting in the kingdom: when the building was finished, they let the scaffold fall to the ground.

Thus the institutions produced effects which could hardly be expected from a master-piece of legislation. To prepare great changes, sometimes whole ages are requisite; the events ripen, and the revolutions follow.

The parliament judged in the last resort of almost all the affairs of the kingdom. Before* , it took cognizance only of disputes between the dukes, counts, barons, bishops, abbots, or between the king and his vassals , rather in the relation they had to the political, than to the civil order. They were soon obliged to render it permanent, whereas it used to be held only a few times in a year: and, in fine, a great number were created, in order to be sufficient for the decision of all manner of causes.

No sooner was the parliament become a fixed body, than they began to compile its decrees. John de Monluc, under the reign of Philip the Fair, made a collection, which, at present, is known by the name of the Olim registers.

[* ]See Du Tillet on the court of peers. See also Laroche, Flavin, book i. chap. 3. Budeus and Paulus Emilius.

[]Other causes were decided by the ordinary tribunals.

[]See the president Hanault’s excellent abridgment of the history of France in the year 1313.