Paul-Louis Huvelin (1873–1924), generally known as Paul Huvelin, was a French

legal historian Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has Sociocultural evolution, evolved and why it has changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilisations and operates in the wider context of social history. C ...

. He was a specialist in the study of the earliest forms of

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...

Biography

Huvelin spent almost all his career teaching in the law faculty of the

University of Lyon The University of Lyon (french: Université de Lyon), located in Lyon and Saint-Étienne, France, is a center for higher education and research comprising 11 members and 24 associated institutions. The three main universities in this center are: ...

which he joined in 1899. That year he made contact with the anthropologist

Marcel Mauss Marcel Mauss (; 10 May 1872 – 10 February 1950) was a French sociologist and anthropologist known as the "father of French ethnology". The nephew of Émile Durkheim, Mauss, in his academic work, crossed the boundaries between sociology and a ...

and, as a result, gradually became involved with the group of pioneer French sociologists organised by Mauss' uncle

Emile Durkheim Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *'' Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *'' Emil and the Detecti ...

. Huvelin, as a respected jurist, was welcomed into the Durkheim group and contributed regularly to Durkheim's famous L'Année Sociologique yearbook, from its sixth volume, published in 1906, until the series was suspended on the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Huvelin made important contributions to the sociological study of the earliest forms of

Western law Western law comprises the legal traditions of Western culture, with roots in Roman law and canon law. As Western culture shares a Graeco-Roman Classical and Renaissance cultural influence, so do its legal systems. History The rediscovery of th ...

. His imaginative if sometimes speculative scholarship explored links between magic and the emergence of ideas of private rights. He also tried to reformulate Durkheim's own ideas of law to make them more compatible with the instrumental legal outlook of jurists. Towards the end of his life he became involved with efforts to shore up waning French influence in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. As an offshoot of the Lyon law faculty's involvement with legal education in territories associated with France, he was instrumental in the founding of the law school of the

Université Saint-Joseph Saint Joseph University of Beirut ( French: ''Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth'', abbreviated to and commonly known as "USJ") is a private Catholic research university located in Beirut, Lebanon, which was founded in 1875 by French Jesuit mis ...

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

in 1913. In 1919 he led a mission to

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

to assess the growing threats to French interests in the region. He died after a short illness in 1924. A street in Beirut, is named after him, the

Rue Huvelin Rue Huvelin ( ar, شارع هوفلين), is a street located east of Beirut Central District in the neighborhood of Achrafieh. The street is named after Paul Huvelin, a French legal historian who founded the law school of the Université Saint-Jose ...

Works

* ''Essai historique sur le droit des marchés et des foires'' istorical Essay on the Law of Markets and Fairs, Paris, A. Rousseau, 1897. * ''Les Tablettes magiques et le droit romain'' he Magic Tablets and Roman Law Macon: Protrat Frères, 1901. * 'La notion de l’«injuria» dans le très ancien droit romain' he notion of 'injuria' in very early Roman Law ''Mélanges Appleton'', 372–499, 1903. * 'Review of B. Kubler, ''Kritische Bemerkungen zum Nexum, et al'' '. ''Année Sociologique'' 8:408–16, 1905. * 'Magie et droit individuel' agic and Individual Law ''Année Sociologique'' 10:1-47, 1906. * 'Review of P. Kretschmar, ''Das Nexum und sein Verhaeltnis zum Mancipium'' '. 11 ''Année Sociologique'' 11:433–47, 1909. * ''Études sur le «furtum» dans le très ancien droit romain. I. Les sources'' tudies on 'furtum' in very early Roman law Lyon, A. Rey. * 'Nexum'. In Charles Victor Daremberg and Edmund Saglio, eds., ''Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines''. Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1919. * 'Que vaut la Syrie?' hat is Syria worth? ''L’Asie française'', n° 197, 1921. * ''Cours élémentaire de droit romain'' lementary course of Roman law 2 vols, Paris: Sirey, 1927–9. * ''Études d’histoire du droit commercial romain'' tudies in the history of commercial Roman law Paris: Sirey, 1929.

References

* Frédéric Audren
Paul Huvelin (1873-1924): juriste et durkheimien
''Revue d'Histoire des Sciences Humaines'' 1:4 (2001) *

Roger Cotterrell Roger B. M. Cotterrell is the Anniversary Professor of Legal Theory at Queen Mary University of London and was made a fellow of the British Academy in 2005. Previously he was the Acting Head of the Department of Law (1989–90), Head of the D ...

, ''Emile Durkheim: Law in a Moral Domain''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999, . * Roger Cotterrell, Durkheim's Loyal Jurist? The Sociolegal Theory of Paul Huvelin. (2005) 18 ''Ratio Juris'' 504–18. * Roger Cotterrell, Constructing the Juristic Durkheim? Paul Huvelin's Adaptation of Durkheimian Sociology (2004) 10 ''Durkheimian Studies'' 56–69. * Stephanie Frank
The "force in the thing": Mauss' nonauthoritarian sociality in ''The Gift''
''Hau'' 6:2, 2016. * Simon Jackson
“What is Syria Worth?”. The Huvelin Mission, Economic Expertise and the French Project in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1918-1922
''Monde(s)'' 2013/2 (N° 4), p. 83-103. *

, ''The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies'', translated by W. D. Halls. London: Routledge, 1990, ch. 3 . * M. Zimmermann, La mission Paul Huvelin en Syrie. (1920) 29 ''

Annales de géographie The ''Annales de Géographie'' is a French journal devoted to geography, first published in 1891. From the start the journal was an influential and respected academic journal. History The ''Annales de Géographie'' was founded in 1891 by Paul Vid ...

'' 70–2. {{DEFAULTSORT:Huvelin, Paul-Louis 1873 births 1924 deaths French legal scholars Legal historians