René David (January 12, 1906 in Jura,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

– May 26, 1990 in Le Tholonet, France) was a French Professor of Law. His work has been published in eight different languages. He was, in the second half of the 20th century, one of the key representatives in the field of

comparative law Comparative law is the study of differences and similarities between the law and legal systems of different countries. More specifically, it involves the study of the different legal systems (or "families") in existence around the world, includ ...

Biography

Between 1929 and 1939 David was a professor at the

University of Grenoble The (, ''Grenoble Alps University'', abbr. UGA) is a Grands établissements, ''grand établissement'' in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 researchers. Es ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he served in the French army. After the war, from 1945 to 1968, he was the chair of comparative law at the

Faculty of Law of Paris The Faculty of Law of Paris (), called from the late 1950s to 1970 the Faculty of Law and Economics of Paris, is the second-oldest faculty of law in the world and one of the four and eventually five faculties of the University of Paris ("the S ...

(

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

). Subsequently, from 1968 to 1976 he was a professor at the University of Aix-en-Provence. He worked on several legal projects and assignments, as in 1930 for

UNIDROIT UNIDROIT (formally, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law; French: ''Institut international pour l'unification du droit privé'') is an intergovernmental organization whose objective is to harmonize private internati ...

(International Institute for the Unification of Private Law) in Rome. He lectured in various places in the world, including the University of Cambridge (1933–35), Columbia University, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the University of Tehran. In the sixties, he led the French delegation at the

UNCITRAL The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) ( French: ''Commission des Nations Unies pour le droit commercial international (CNUDCI)'') is a subsidiary body of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) responsible for helping to f ...

(United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) and from 1962 to 1978 he was a board member of UNIDROIT. David was one of the writers of the Civil Code of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

in 1960 and a member of the team that wrote the civil law for

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

. He was also, in 1973, the head of the publication of the International Encyclopaedia of Comparative Law.

Legal theory

David, in ''Traité élémentaire de droit civile comparé'',''Traité élémentaire de droit civile comparé: Introduction à l'étude des droits étrangers et à la méthode comparative'' - in French; Paris, 1950 proposed the classification of legal systems, according to the different ideology inspiring each one, into five groups or families: *

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

Laws, a group subdivided into the: ** Romano-Germanic subgroup (comprising those legal systems where legal science was formulated according to

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 (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

– see also

Civil law (legal system) Civil law is a legal system rooted in the Roman Empire and was comprehensively codified and disseminated starting in the 19th century, most notably with France's Napoleonic Code (1804) and Germany's (1900). Unlike common law systems, which r ...

) **

Common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

* Soviet Law *

Muslim Law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

(sharia) *

Hindu Law Hindu law, as a historical term, refers to the code of laws applied to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs in British India. Hindu law, in modern scholarship, also refers to the legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophical reflections on the na ...

Chinese Law Chinese law is one of the oldest legal traditions in the world. The core of modern Chinese law is based on Germanic-style civil law, socialist law, and traditional Chinese approaches. For most of the history of China, its legal system has ...

Jewish Law ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

(halakha) Especially with respect to the aggregating by David of the Romano-Germanic and Common Law into a single family, David argued that the antithesis between Common Law and Romano-German Laws, is of a technical rather than of an ideological nature. Of a different kind is, for instance, the antithesis between (say) the Italian and the American Law, and of a different kind that between the Soviet, Muslim, Hindu, or Chinese Law. According to David, the Romano-Germanic legal systems included those countries where legal science was formulated according to Roman Law, whereas

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

countries are those where law was created from the

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

s. The characteristics that he believed uniquely differentiate the Western legal family from the other four are: * liberal democracy * capitalist economy * Christian religion

Awards

David was awarded honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh, Brussels, Ottawa, Basel, Leicester and Helsinki. On September 17, 1976, he was honored with

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

, with the

Erasmus Prize The Erasmus Prize is an annual prize awarded by the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation to individuals or institutions that have made exceptional contributions to culture, society, or social science in Europe and the rest of the world. I ...

in the Pieterskerk in Leiden.

Selected bibliography

* 1929: ''La protection des minorités dans les sociétés par actions'', Librairie du Recueil Sirey, Paris * 1947: ''Cours de législation civile'', Les cours de droit, Paris * 1948: ''Introduction à l'étude du droit privé de l'Angleterre'', Recueil Sirey, Paris * 1950: ''Traité élémentaire de droit civil comparé: introduction à l'étude des droits étrangers et à la méthode comparative'', R. Pichon, R. Durand-Auzias, Paris * 1952: ''French bibliographical digest. Law: books and periodicals'', culturele afdeling van de Franse ambassade, New York * 1954: ''Le droit soviétique'', met John N Hazard, Librairie générale de droit et de jurisprudence, Paris, 2 volumes * 1955: ''French law'', Diocesan press, Madras * 1958: ''The French legal system: an introduction to civil law systems'', met Henry P De Vries, Oceana Publications for Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law, Columbia University, New York * 1960: ''Le Droit français'', met Philippe Ardant, Librairie générale de droit et de jurisprudence, Paris * 1960: ''Le droit français. Principes et tendances du droit français'', Libr. générale de droit et de jurisprudence, Paris * 1962: ''Cours de droit civil comparé'', Les Cours de droit, Paris * 1964 ''Les grands systèmes de droit contemporains'', Dalloz, Paris, * 1964: ''Bibliographie du droit français, 1945-1960, établie pour le Comité international pour la documentation des sciences sociales sous le patronage de l'Association internationale des sciences juridiques'', met International Committee for Social Sciences Documentation, Paris, Mouton * 1967: ''Administrative contracts in the Ethiopian civil code'', Ministerie van Justitie, Addis Ababa * 1968: ''Major legal systems in the world today'', met John E. C. Brierley, London * 1972: ''French law; its structure, sources, and methodology'', State University Press, Baton Rouge, * 1973: ''Les Contrats en droit anglais'', met Françoise Grivart de Kerstrat, Libr. de Droit et de Jurisprudence R. Pichon et R. Durand-Auzias, Paris * 1974: ''Structure and the divisions of the law'', M. Nijhoff, Den Haag * 1975: ''International encyclopedia of comparative law'', met International Association of Legal Science, M. Nijhoff, Den Haag, * 1977: ''Unification du droit et arbitrage'', Kluwer, Deventer, * 1980: ''English law and French law: a comparison in substance'', Stevens and Sons, London, * 1982: ''Le droit comparé: droits d´hier, droitss de demain'', Paris, * 1982: ''Les avatars d´un com-paratiste'', Paris, * 1987: ''Le droit du commerce international: réflexions d´un comparatiste sur le droit international privé'', Paris, * 1995: ''Le droit anglais'', met Xavier Blanc-Jouvan, Presses universitaires de France, Paris,

References

* Info Pressa (2011
''Rene David, One of the Most Prominent Scholars in the Field of Comparative Law''
* Revue internationale de droit comparé lien (1976
''La remise du Prix Erasme au professeur René David''
vol. 28, number 4, page 803 * Revue internationale de droit comparé lien (1990
''René David (1906-1990)''
vol. 42, number 3, pages 865-868 * IDREF
bibliography
{{DEFAULTSORT:David, Rene French legal scholars Academic staff of the University of Paris 1906 births 1990 deaths Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Scholars of comparative law