The Center for Civil Law Studies of the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center presents the 35th John H. Tucker, jr. Lecture in Civil Law
Professor EmeritusJacques Vanderlinden
(Free University of Brussels, Belgium; and University of Moncton, N.-B., Canada)
From the Civil Code of Louisiana to Langdell-Some Hypothesis about the Nature of Legal Systems
Professor Emeritus Jacques Vanderlindenreceived his PhD degree in law from Brussels Free University (Belgium) in 1956, then his Agrégation de l’Enseignement supérieur in 1967 when he published his world acclaimed Le concept de code en Europe occidentale du XIIIe au XIXe siècle, after the publication by the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences of Belgium of his Essai sur les juridictions de droit coutumier dans les territoires d’Afrique centrale in 1959. He started his teaching career at the Free University of Brussels in 1958, where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Law, and concluded it in 1992. He then started teaching law at the University of Moncton (New-Brunswick, Canada), where he has held honorary positions such as Academic Advisor of the Centre international de la common law en français. He is currently Professor Emeritus of both universities. He is a full elected fellow of the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences, of the International Academy of Comparative Law and a Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Italy (Accademia nazionale dei Lincei).
He has published some 200 articles and some 30 books and monographs, especially in the fields of African laws, comparative law, legal history, and legal theory, more specifically and recently legal pluralism. Here are a few samples, showing the diversity of his scholarship: Anthropologie juridique, Paris, Dalloz, 1996; Bibliographie de droit africain, 1987-1989, Bordeaux, 1991; “À propos de la création du droit en Afrique – Regards d’un absent”, La création du droit en Afrique, Paris, Karthala, 1997; Pierre Ryckmans (1891-1959) – Coloniser dans l’honneur, Brussels, De Boeck-Wesmael, 1994; “What Kind of Lawmaking in a Global World – The Case of Africa”, Louisiana Law Review, 67 (2007);”Analyzing Property in Different Societies“, Journal of Bijural Studies, (forthcoming, 2008); “À la rencontre de l’histoire du droit en Acadie”, Revue de l’Université de Moncton, 28 (1995); “La réception des droits européens au Canada”, Revue de la common law en français, 1996; Se marier en Acadie française, Moncton, Éditions d’Acadie, 1998; “Vers une conception nouvelle du pluralisme juridique”, Revue de la Recherche juridique – Droit prospectif, vol. XVIII (1993); “Trente ans de longue marche sur la voie du pluralisme juridique”, Cahiers d’anthropologie du droit, II (2004); “Religious laws as systems of law: a comparatist’s view”, Religion, Law and Tradition : comparative studies in religious law (A. Huxley, ed.), London, Routledge, 2002; “Une lecture du système normatif de l’Église catholique par un pluraliste comparatiste aux personnalités multiples”, McGill Law Review, 50 (2005); Comparer les droits, Brussels, Kluwer, 1995; La structure des sytèmes juridiques, (with Olivier Moréteau), Brussels, Bruylant, 2003; “Qu’est-ce qu’un code ?”, Les cahiers de droit,46 (2005).
He has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Bordeaux, Boston, Edinburgh, Kigali, London, Louisiana State University, Paris, South Carolina and has given lectures at many other Universities.
