lus Commune 249 dom, which was ruled by customary law. But it was barely comprehensible in the southern part of France, where the civil law was of Roman origin. No matter: our legists simply maintained that the legal systemin force in the South was a common law systemsimilar to Roman Law, but enforced only with the king’s permission. At the end of the Middle Ages, the French distinguished themselves from other European jurists by the liberties they allowed themselves in the interpretation of Roman Law: this was the ynos Galliens (to follow the expression of Balde, or Baldus de Ubaldis). In the 16th centurv, Roman Lawenjoyed a newrenaissance in all of Europe. In France, this renaissance provoked a strong reaction fromthe supporters of customary law. They fought Roman Law in the name of what could best be called a sort of common law patriotism. Roman Law had in fact begun reconquering a strong position in Renaissance France. It was aided in this by new methods of study and education which were promoted in several French universities by several jurists. The most well-known of these was Jacques Cujas (Jacobus Cujacius, 1522—1590), the leader of the first historical school of Roman Law. Cujas had even received, by special favor, the right to teach Roman Law in Paris. At this time, French Romanists attracted students from all over Europe. One of the principal Romanist centers of this century was the University of Bourges. In the 16th centurv, then, French judicial scholarship was in tune with all of the rest of Europe. These relatit')ns, by the way, were facilitated by the Wars of Religion, which fc'irced out of France a certain number of Huguenot jurists. But this situation did not last. The defenders of customary law had not been inactive. The 16th century is also the century when the contnmes came to be written down. Writing the customs down made themmore rigid, but also saved them: fromnow on they escaped the contamination of Roman Law. The northern half of France was henceforth solidly, definitivelyconsuetudinaria. Roman Law, therefore, never found formal acceptance {Rezeption) in France. And practical acceptance, too, was blocked by the victorious resistance of the adepts of customary law. At the end of the Ancien Regime, one could argue that Roman Law had been completely marginalized in French legal scholarship. The rise of the authoritarian state helped to distance French law widely from other European legal systems. France was not alone in its legal nationalism: the 17th century was noted for this. In 1679, the law faculties were reorganized. (It was at this time that the competition called “agregatic')n” was created, which still serves, 300 years later, as the means c^f recruiting lawprofessors in France.) It was also in 1679 that the first chairs of French law were founded in the law faculties. Fromthat time on, French law had the status of an academic discipline. Even
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