THE FRENCH
DEVELOPMENT DURING
THE LATE 18 TH CENTURY
By
Group 3
Eveliina Kinnunen, Liu Zhe,
Loïc Trottier & Liam Ellul
April 9, 2015
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Comparative European Legal History
1
CONTENT
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The absolute monarchy in France
French Revolution philosophers
The revolution and the universal declaration
Napoleon and the restored monarchy
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ABSOLUTE MONARCHY
IN FRANCE
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1643-1792
ESTABLISHING ABSOLUTE MONARCHY
 Louis XIII
 Louis XIV
 Fronde
 Nobles
 Edict of Fontainebleau
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”I AM THE STATE”
 The divine right of kings
 The will of God
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LEGISLATION
 Customs
 Well known
 Proved before the court
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THE PHILOSOPHERS
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Voltaire
Rousseau
Montesquieu
Diderot
John Locke
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VOLTAIRE
 François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778),
known by his nom de plume Voltaire
 A French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher.
 Attacks on the established Catholic Church
 Advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and
separation of church and state.
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ROUSSEAU
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a
Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th
century.
 The doctrine of democracy and popular sovereignty.
 Social Contract
 Men had the right to change their government, if they were
not satisfied.
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MONTESQUIEU
 Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de
Montesquieu (18 January 1689 – 10 February 1755),
 A French social commentator and political thinker who lived
during the Age of Enlightenment.
 Separation of powers
 All powers should not be concentrated in one person's hand.
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SPIRIT OF LAW, BOOK XI, CHAP. IV
 “DEMOCRATIC and aristocratic states are not in their own
nature free…but constant experience shows us that every man
invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his
authority as far as it will go. Is it not strange, though true, to
say, that virtue itself has need of limits?”
 “To prevent this abuse, it is necessary, from the very nature of
things, power should be a check to power. A government may
be so constituted, as no man shall be compelled to do things
to which the law does not oblige him, nor forced to abstain
from things which the law permits.”
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SPIRIT OF LAW, BOOK XI, CHAP. VI
 “IN every government there are three sorts of power: the
legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on
the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that
depend on the civil law…”
 “When the legislative and executive powers are united in the
same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can
be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same
monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute
them in a tyrannical manner.”
 “The judgments ought, and to such a degree, as to be ever
conformable to the letter of the law. Were they to be the
private opinion of the judge, people would then live in society
without exactly knowing the nature of their obligations.”
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SPIRIT OF LAW, BOOK XI, CHAP. VI
 “One great fault there was in most of the ancient republics,
that the people had a right to active resolutions, such as
require some execution, a thing of which they are absolutely
incapable. They ought to have no share in the government but
for the choosing of representatives, which is within their
reach.”
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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
&
THE « DÉCLARATION DES DROITS DE
L’HOMME ET DU CITOYEN
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»
« SALLE DES MENUS PLAISIR »
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IMPORTANTS DATES AND EVENTS
 « Déclaration sur la constitution de l’Assemblée »
[June 17th 1789]
 Sovereignty transferred from King to “l’Assemblée”
 Real beginning of the revolution
 Role of “l’Assemblée” : Come up with a constitution
 14 th of July :
 Prise de la Bastille
 Decision to include a Human rights declaration in the Constitution
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THE CONSTITUTION OF 1791
 Influences :
 Antiquity
 Great-Britain
 United-States
 Montesquieu vs. Rousseau
 King get caught fleeing the country and is executed
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LA DÉCLARATION DES DROITS DE
L’HOMME ET DU CITOYEN
 Celebration of individuals rights
 Natural rights such as : liberty, propriety, safety and resistance to
oppression.
 Liberty is : “tout ce qui ne nuit pas à autrui”
 Includes : Penal presomption of innocence, liberty of opinion, of press, of
conscience
 Influences of the Enlightenment
 It is still a valid constitutional document today
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CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES
Three other constitutions will follow :
 1793
 1795
 Finally 1799 - the End of the French Revolution
The Human Rights Declaration will be modified many times
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Social Rights
Duty of insurrection
Abolishment of slavery
Liberty of association, of religion
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NAPOLEON AND THE RESTORED MONARCHY
 Napoleon was born on the island of
Corsica in 1769.
 Napoleon fought well during the
French revolution and was promoted
to a Brigadier General.
 Napoleon married Josephine de
Beauharnais and gained command
of the French army in Italy.
 After defeating the Austrians in
1797, he negotiated the Treaty of
Campo Formio, giving him fame and
greater influence within France.
 While in a campaign to capture
Egypt and thus impair British
shipping to India, he decided to
return to Paris to take advantage of
the weakened Directory, and
successfully became first of three
consuls in the new government
which was proclaimed in 1799.
 As First Consul, Napoleon implemented a
program to consolidate his power.
 1804, he set the foundation for much of
Europe's legal system by establishing the
Napoleonic Code.
 He removed the Consulate and made
himself Emperor, becoming the first
monarch proclaiming himself as an
embodiment of the nation.
 So in 1812, Napoleon's Grand Army entered
Russia in order to punish Alexander for
abandoning the Continental system, but the
ravages of the deadly Russian winter
decimated his army.
 Following the removal of Napoleon
Bonaparte in 1814, the Bourbon Dynasty
was restored to the French throne .
 In June 1815, the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated
Napoleon at Waterloo.
 This new regime was a constitutional monarchy, so having
limits on its abilities to govern and saw a re -establishment of
the Roman Catholic Church an influential component of
French politics.
 Many of the legal, administrative, and economic reforms of
the revolutionary period however, were left intact; the
Napoleonic code which guaranteed legal equality and civil
liberties and the peasants' biens nationaux, were not undone
by the new King; Louis XVIII.
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