Bicentenary of the Digest of Orleans (1808)

2008 was the bicentenary of the Louisiana Civil Code. Among various events commemorating this was an important conference at Tulane Law School, hosted by the Easson-Weinmann Centre, and organised by Professor Vernon Palmer. While some of this was devoted to the issue of codification generally – and the evergreen and ever so tedious topic of a European code of private law – there was a day of very important papers on the history of the law of Louisiana, in which some excellent research was presented. Most will be published relatively soon. For details of the Conference, see http://www.law.tulane.edu/uploadedFiles/Life_After_Law_School/CLE/PDFs_for_Events_and_Conferences/Civil%20Code%20Celebration%20Brochure.pdf

The legal history papers have now been published in the Tulane European and civil Law Forum. vol. 24 (2009)

The author of this entry visited the grave of Louis Moreau Lislet, one of the compilers of the Digest, in the  atmospheric cemetery familiar to those of you who remember the film Easy Rider. (Photo courtesy of Georgia Chadwick, Director, Law Library of Louisiana)