Joseph Michel Antoine Servan (November 3, 1737 – 1807) was a French publicist and lawyer. He was born at

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

(

Dauphiné The Dauphiné (, ) is a former province in Southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois. In the 12th centu ...

). After studying

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

he was appointed ''avocat-general'' at the '' parlement'' of

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

at the age of twenty-seven. In his ''Discours sur l'administration de la Justice Criminelle'' (1767) he made an eloquent protest against legal abuses and the severity of the criminal code. In 1767 he gained great repute for his defense of a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

woman who, as a result of the revocation of the

Edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was in essence completely Catholic. In the edict, Henry aimed pr ...

, had been abandoned by her

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husband. In 1772, however, on the parlement refusing to accede to his request that a present made by a ''grand seigneur'' to a singer should be annulled on the ground of immorality, he resigned, and went into retirement. He excused himself on the score of ill health from sitting in the

States General The word States-General, or Estates-General, may refer to: Currently in use * Estates-General on the Situation and Future of the French Language in Quebec, the name of a commission set up by the government of Quebec on June 29, 2000 * States Gener ...

of 1789, to which he had been elected deputy, and refused to take his seat in the ''Corps Législatif'' under the Empire. Among his writings may be mentioned ''Reflexions sur les Confessions de J.-J. Rousseau'' (1783) and ''Essai sur La formation des assemblées nationales, provinciales, et municipales'' (1789). His ''Œuvres choisies'' and ''Œuvres inédites'' have been published by De Portets. His brother Joseph Servan de Gerbey (1741-1808) was war minister in the

Girondist The Girondins ( , ), or Girondists, were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnard ...

ministry of 1792. See "''Lettres inédites de Servan''," in ''Souvenirs et mémoires'' (vol. iv., Paris, 1900). Michel Foucault's quotation of Servan who he mentioned as belonging to an influential group called the ''Idéologues'' Andreas Möllenkamp and Peter McCaffery ''Who were the Ideologues?'' 2004 in his seminal work on Prisons, ''

Discipline and Punish ''Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison'' (french: Surveiller et punir : Naissance de la prison) is a 1975 book by French philosopher Michel Foucault. It is an analysis of the social and theoretical mechanisms behind the changes tha ...

'' provides an illuminating insight into the mind of Servan:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Servan, Joseph Michel Antoine 1737 births 1807 deaths 18th-century French writers 18th-century French male writers 19th-century French philosophers Members of the Corps législatif People from Romans-sur-Isère