Phillippe Cocatre-Zilgien though the old ban on teaching Roman Law in Paris was also lifted in 1679, that subject’s importance was counterbalanced by French law. In the 18th century, the well knownPothier (1699—1772) was explicating Roman Lawfollowing methods completely different from those of other European jurists. On the eve of the Revolution, French law had become cut off fromthat of Europe. This ends our discussion of the Ancien Régime. French legal culture was profoundly altered by the Revolution. To mention only one radical change; all the universities and law faculties were suppressed in 1793. But the new regime did not question the legal nationalism inherited from the old one. The 19th and 20th centuries have continued to follow that tradition. In the 19th century, canon law disappeared from French legal culture. Marginalized by the neworganization of religious institutions in modern France, it has only continued to be studied in a fewseminaries. Of the two universal legal systems of the past, then, only Roman Lawcontinned to be part of the educational tradition. When law schools were refounded in 1804, Roman Lawwas included in the curriculum but it played only a supporting role. It was taught in close relationship with the new French civil law, which is defined in the Civil Code of 1804. The Pandects were studied only in so far as they served to elucidate articles of the Civil Code. The 19th century lawfaculties had a very narrow, utilitarian, ahistoric view of Roman Law. The brilliant historische Rechtsschule, whichwas developing in Germany at the same time, was known in France (around 1840), but it had little influence. Things changed, however, after the defeat of France by Prussia (1870-1871) and the establishment of what the French call the Third Republic. After this war, the German university systemcame to be greatly admired in France, as it was elsewhere, for its research freedom and the emphasis it placed on history. Duringthe Third Republic the academic systemwas reorganized in France, and it was at this time that legal history achieved the status of an academic discipline. With the creation in 1880 of the first chairs in the history of French law in the law faculties, the study of the legal history in France was born. At the same time, the study of Roman Law liberated itself fromits dependence on civil law, and became an autonomous discipline, taught from a scientific perspective, which was more historical and less utilitarian in emphasis than before. In 1896, a special “agrégation” competition was organized to recruit professors of “Roman Lawand legal history”. But this did not mean that French universities in the last century began to align themselves more closely with legal scholarship elsewhere in Europe. A number of French jurists did take an interest in foreign legal systems, and comparative law acquired academic status as well at this time. But Europe at that time was also prey to strong national rivalries. No one, then, dreamed of a common European legal system. When ever France imitated foreign laws (there are a number of examples of this), it was never openly admitted. 250
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