Henri Capitant (1865–1937) was a French

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

. He was a professor and noted teacher of law at Grenoble (1891) and at the Faculty of Law of Paris (1908). Several of his legal textbooks have had a lasting effect on French

legal education Legal education is the education of individuals in the principles, practices, and theory of law. It may be undertaken for several reasons, including to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for admission to legal practice in a particular j ...

, including ''Introduction à l' étude du droit civil'' (1898), ''Cours élémentaire de droit civil'' (1914-16 with Ambroise Colin), ''Questions de droit civil'' (1933) and ''Grands arrêts de la jurisprudence civile'' (1934). Capitant pursued an ideal of the unity of legal education,

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

and

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law i ...

. A declared conservative, he objected to legal innovation, which he saw as generally threatening to a purpose of law – the preservation of individual liberty. He co-founded the

Paris Institute of Comparative Law The Paris Institute of Comparative Law ( French: ''Institut de droit comparé de Paris'', commonly referred to as "IDC") is a public institution of research and higher education which was founded in 1931 by Henri Capitant and Henri Lévy-Ullmann. ...

in 1931.

Association Henri Capitant

Convinced that French law represented the highest degree of legal culture, Capitant founded the ''Association des juristes de langue française'' in 1935, which was renamed upon his death to ''Association Henri Capitant pour la Culture Juridique Française'' and then to ''Association Henri Capitant des Amis de la Culture Juridique Française''. Partially subsidised by the French government, the Association publishes studies and organises scientific conferences. It has about 45 chapters around the world, including in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. The Association's presidents have been Henri Capitant,

Jacques Charpentier Jacques Charpentier (born 18 October 1933 in Paris, France, died 15 June 2017 in Lézignan-Corbières) was a French composer and organist. He is unrelated to either of two other eminent French musicians with the same surname (Marc-Antoine Charpen ...

, Robert Le Balle, Roger Houin, Philippe Malinvaud and Michel Grimaldi.

References

External links

Website of the Association Henri Capitant
French jurists 1865 births 1937 deaths 19th-century jurists 20th-century jurists {{France-law-bio-stub