The Center of Civil Law Studies at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center invites you to attend an International Conference held at LSU on March 20-21, 2025, commemorating the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825: Content, Influence, and Languages; Past and Present. For conference details and registration, visit the CCLS Homepage. Conference events will be video-recorded and accessible from our webpage. Papers will be published.
Conference poster with conference details.
Baton Rouge, April 22, 2024. A delegation of four distinguished French law professors presented at an afternoon conference on how French tort law faces environmental challenges, to an audience including law professors from LSU, Southern University, Loyola University College of Law and Mississippi College.
Mustapha Mekki, Professor at the Sorbonne Law School, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, General Director of INFN, presented on Litigating Climate Liability: An Example of Democracy in Litigation, followed by Nathalie Blanc, Professor at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University, co-Director of IRDA, discussing Corporate Social Responsibility. Philippe Pierre, Professor at the University of Rennes, Holder of the International Chair of Notarial Law, then discussed The Notary’s Liability and Duty to Advise on Environmental Matters. Finally, Bernard Haftel, Professor at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University, co-director of IRDA, presented on The Compensation of Environmental Damage.
Professor Mustapha Mekki
Professor Nathalie Blanc
Professor Philippe Pierre
Professor Bernard Haftel
Each paper was discussed and a lively general discussion closed the event, followed by a tour of the LSU Campus. The conference papers will be published in the Journal of Civil Law Studies. 
Baton Rouge, April 22, 2024. LSU Law Dean Alena Allen signed a memorandum of understanding between the Law Center and the French National Institute for the Training of Notaries (INFN), the organization coordinating the 16 centers training notaries in France.
In France and civil law jurisdictions, notaries are a separate branch of the legal profession. The MOU with the INFN will attract top candidates to our growing LLM Program and create additional opportunities for future student exchanges and academic activities. Dean Allen signed the agreement with Professor Mustapha Mekki (Pantheon-Sorbonne University), Director General of the INFN in the presence of the Cultural Attaché (Consulate General of France in Louisiana) and a delegation of three other French law professors. The four French professors presented at a well-attended conference discussing how French tort law faces environmental challenges.
From left to right, Prof. Philippe Pierre (Rennes and INFN), Prof. Nick Davrados and Prof. Olivier Moréteau (LSU), Cultural Attaché Jacques Baran (Consulate General of France in Louisiana), Prof. Mustapha Mekki (Pantheon-Sorbonne and INFN), Dean Alena Allen (LSU), Prof. Bernard Haftel and Prof. Nathalie Blanc (Paris Nord-Sorbonne)
A conference organized by/Colloque organisé par: Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center (Center of Civil Law Studies), Institut national des formations notariales (INFN), Fondation université Rennes (Chaire internationale de droit notarial INFN), and/et Université Sorbonne Paris Nord (Institut de recherche pour un droit attractif, IRDA).
Academic Coordinators/Coordination scientifique: O. Moréteau, B. Haftel and M. Mekki
12:00-12:30 PM
Welcome & Lunch / Accueil et déjeuner informel
[contact Prof. O. Moréteau at moreteau@lsu.edu to receive an invitation]
12:30-1:00 PM
Litigating Climate Liability: An Example of Democracy in Litigation / Le contentieux de la responsabilité climatique : un exemple de démocratie contentieuse ?
Mustapha Mekki, Professor at the Sorbonne Law School, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, General Director of INFN
1:00-1:30 PM
Corporate Social Responsibility / La responsabilité sociale des entreprises
Nathalie Blanc, Professor at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University, co-Director of IRDA
1:30-2:00 PM
The Notary’s Liability and Duty to Advise on Environmental Matters / La responsabilité du notaire et son devoir de conseil en matière environnementale
Philippe Pierre, Professor at the University of Rennes, Holder of the International Chair of Notarial Law, Fondation université Rennes/INFN
2:00-2:30 PM
The Compensation of Environmental Damage / La réparation du préjudice écologique
Bernard Haftel, Professor at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University, co-director of IRDA
2:30-3:00 PM
General Discussion and Conclusion / Discussion générale et conclusion
Professor Olivier Moréteau has recorded several videos for his Legal Traditions class. They are available to the public on his YouTube Chanel @oliviermoreteau, from the Western Legal Traditions list. These 26 videos cover code interpretation, interpretation in the common law, comparative views on interpretation, gaps in civil codes, categories in the civil law, The French court system, legal education, judicial review, history of the common law, the development of the civil law in Louisiana. Click here to access the videos. The @oliviermoreteau YouTube chanel also gives you access to videos of Juris Diversitas conferences.
Prof. Olivier Moréteau discussing the Code translations at Tulane University School of Law in February 2023
The Lousiana Civil Code Online (LCCO) is an online publication of the Center of Civil Law Studies (CCLS). It gives full access to the Civil Code of Louisiana in English, to its French translation, completed in 2016, and to the ongoing Spanish translation prepared by Professor Mariano Vitetta, LLM LSU, former CCLS Research Associate and currently Assistant Professor at Austral University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Spanish translation is in progress. The Preliminary Title, Book 1 (persons), Book 2 (things and ownership), Titles 3 to 5 of Book 3 (obligations), Book 4 (conflict of laws) are already accessible online. The English and French versions have been updated of all changes adopted until the 2023 legislative session, thanks to the work of Aurore Guizonne, CCLS Research Associate.
LCCO is open source. It is possible to consult the English and the French, and the English and the Spanish on the same screen. Tables of content facilitate the navigation and LCCO is fully searchable.
For any comment, contact Prof. Moréteau: moreteau@lsu.edu. Click here to access LCCO.
On February 6, 2024, Professor Frédérique Ferrand, Professor at University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Director of the Edouard Lambert Institute of Comparative Law, and Honorary Professor at the University of Augsburg, Germany, presented on Evolutions in European Family Law: Towards a Common Core, at the LSU Law Center. This was the 43rd John H. Tucker, Jr. Lecture in Civil Law, organized by the Center of Civil Law Studies of the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center.
Dean Alena Allen opened the event, reminding the audience of Colonel Tucker’s influence on the evolution of the Civil Law of Louisiana. Professor Olivier Moréteau introduced the speaker, pointing to her vast scholarship in comparative civil procedure and family law, and her prominent role in worldwide harmonization of civil procedure and European harmonization of family Law.
In a well-structured and splendidly delivered lecture, Professor Ferrand presented on the current trends in European family law, including recent cooperation on family matters within the European Union and the emerging trend of harmonizing national European family laws on matters like jurisdiction and choice-of-law for divorce, while continuing different national approaches to certain sensitive issues.
One issue that the European countries continues to take separate approaches on is surrogacy and the rules on the transfer of parenthood. Because each individual member state has its own rules on family law matters, the European Union has a limited role when it comes to such matters.
A lively discussion followed, with questions from scholars and from the many family law students who attended the Lecture. Students tried to better grasp the reasons why leading European jurisdictions oppose surrogacy, considering it contrary to public policy, while showing great tolerance towards same-sex unions and pluralistic models of family arrangements.
Click here to view the recording of the 43rd Tucker Lecture.
From left to right, Prof. Etienne Viator, Prof. Frédérique Ferrand, Drake Brignac, Prof. Olivier Moréteau, Prof. Adam Fuglinszky, Charline Perez, Lou Boursault, Domitille Braule, Prof. Nikolaos Davrados
With Professor Agustín Parise and the late Jacques Vanderlinden, Professor Olivier Moréteau contributed the final chapter of A Companion to Western Legal Traditions, featuring the contemporary period (1900-present):
Series:
Cover of the A Companion to Western Legal Traditions book
Legal History Library, Volume: 65
Volume Editors: Aniceto Masferrer, C.H. van Rhee, Seán Donlan, and Cornelis Heesters
This volume offers an extensive introduction to Western legal traditions from antiquity to the twentieth century. Drawing from a variety of scholarly writings, both in English and in translation, thirteen leading scholars present the current state of western legal history research and pave the way for new debates and future study. This is the ideal sourcebook for graduate students, as it enables them to approach the key questions of the field in an accessible way.
First page of the last chapter, Contemporary Period (1900-Present)
Contributors are: Aniceto Masferrer, C.H. (Remco) van Rhee, Seán P. Donlan, Stephan Dusil, Gerald Schwedler, Jean-Louis Halpérin, Jan Hallebeek, Agustín Parise, Heikki Pihlajamäki, Dirk Heirbaut, Bernd Kannowski, Adolfo Giuliani, Olivier Moréteau, and Jacques Vanderlinden.
Copyright Year: 2024
Publication: 28 Dec 2023
THE SPEAKER
Frédéri
que Ferrand is a full professor in the Faculty of Law at the Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France, where she has been teaching German law, European, Comparative and French civil procedure and enforcement law since 1990. She is the Director of the Institute of Comparative Law Édouard Lambert (IDCEL) which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021. She has been Honorarprofessorin at the University of Augsburg, Germany, since 2001 where she teaches French family law, contract law, and tort law.
Professor Ferrand’s area of research are European, comparative, and French civil procedure and enforcement law as well as comparative family law. She is a founding member of the Commission on European Family Law (CEFL), which was established in 2001, and she is one of the seven members of its Organising Committee. The CEFL is a fully independent entity whose main goal is to launch pioneering work on the harmonization of family law in Europe through the drafting of European Principles of Family Law in several fields.
She has been a Visiting Professor at several universities, including Athens, Augsburg, Beijing, Humboldt (Berlin), Freiburg im Breisgau, Hamburg, Helsinki, Munich, Münster, Tokyo, and Turin.
She is a Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative law and of the Société de Législation Comparée. She has participated in several international and European research programs (CEFL, ELI, UNIDROIT) and is a member of the editorial board or committee of several German and international law journals. She is the author of numerous publications.
THE LECTURE
“European family law” includes the national family laws of European States and designates the uniform family law provisions enacted by the European Union in the context of cross-border situations. Moreover, this area of the law is significantly influenced by the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, which has triggered significant family law reforms in numerous member states of the Council of Europe. For a long time, it was mainly assumed that family law was so deeply rooted in national cultures and traditions that it would be impossible, first, to observe clear common tendencies between different jurisdictions, and second, to strive for and to reach a certain degree of harmonization. Is this still the case? Or can common tendencies be acknowledged in the family laws of the various European jurisdictions?
This lecture will present the current trends in European family law from two angles. First, with regard to the judicial cooperation in family matters within the European Union, its achievements and new projects. Second, from the main trends in the convergence of national European family laws in various fields such as divorce, as well as the continuing different approaches to certain sensitive issues.
