Robert Lingat (Rō̜ Lǣngkā, th, โรแบร์ แลงกาต์, 1892 – 1972), was a
French-born academic and legal scholar most known for his masterwork on the
practice of classical Hindu Law. He died May 7, 1972, one year before the first English translation of his work established it as the single most authoritative text on the concept of
dharma
Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...
in
Indian legal history. This followed three decades after his three-volume Thai-language edition of Siamese laws (1939-1940) earned him recognition from renowned legal scholar
John Henry Wigmore
John Henry Wigmore (1863–1943) was an American lawyer and legal scholar known for his expertise in the law of evidence and for his influential scholarship. Wigmore taught law at Keio University in Tokyo (1889–1892) before becoming the first ...
as "the greatest (and almost the only) authority on Siamese legal history," adding: "It will be a notable day when the learned editor will produce for us (as surely he is destined to do) a translation in French."
Life
Lingat was born in
Charleville Charleville can refer to:
Australia
* Charleville, Queensland, a town in Australia
**Charleville railway station, Queensland
France
* Charleville, Marne, a commune in Marne, France
*Charleville-Mézières, a commune in Ardennes, France
** ...
in 1892, and though not much is known of his personal life, it is established that he received his doctorate in Law in Paris in 1919. He moved to work in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
as a legal adviser between 1924 and 1940 where he became involved in the growing debate regarding the origin of the Indian legal system.
[
]
Works
During his time at the Faculty of Law, Thammasat University
The Faculty of Law, Thammasat University ( th, คณะนิติศาสตร์ มหาวิทยาลัยธรรมศาสตร์; ) is an administrative agency of the Thai government, being an academic faculty attached to ...
(then known in English as University of Moral and Political Sciences), he edited a three-volume set of Siamese laws from official manuscripts of the Law Code of 1805 (1166 Chula Sakarat
Chula Sakarat or Chulasakarat ( pi, Culāsakaraj; my, ကောဇာသက္ကရာဇ်, ; km, ចុល្លសករាជ "''Chulasakarach''"; th, จุลศักราช, , , abbrv. จ.ศ. ''Choso'') is a lunisolar calendar deri ...
) promulgated in the first reign of the Chakkri dynasty Chakri may refer to:
People
* Chakri (composer) (1974–2014), Tollywood music director
* Chakri Toleti, Indian American screenwriter, director, actor, and visual effects coordinator
Other uses
* Chakri (noble title), a historical Thai noble title ...
,[ under the Three Seals. (From left to right the seals are: 1. The Royal Lion of the Minister of the Interior; 2. The Trunked Lion of the Minister of Defence; and 3. The Crystal Lotus of the Minister of the Port.]) In 1941, Lingat submitted to the university a thesis on the history of Thai land tenure, later published in 1949. After the outbreak of the Franco-Thai War
The Franco-Thai War (October 1940 – January 28, 1941, th, กรณีพิพาทอินโดจีน, Krṇī phiphāth xindocīn; french: Guerre franco-thaïlandaise) was fought between Thailand and Vichy France over certain areas o ...
(October 1940–May 9, 1941) and during the Japanese occupation of Hanoï, Lingat there published another work on Thailand. He worked at several universities in the former French colonies
From the 16th to the 17th centuries, the First French colonial empire stretched from a total area at its peak in 1680 to over , the second largest empire in the world at the time behind only the Spanish Empire. During the 19th and 20th centuri ...
where, among other things, he was named Professor in the faculty of Law in Indo-China in 1941. Returning to Thammasat, he taught in French with translator
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
s rendering his instructions into Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
— a post which he held until 1955. In 1961 he left his post at a university in Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
to return to France where, until shortly before his death, he taught at the Center for Indian Studies at the University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
.
There he published the French edition of ''The Classical Law of India'', in which he details the origin of the Indian legal system. The book draws heavily on the work of P. V. Kane and Max Müller
Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of Indian ...
, but is at the same time very innovative in its approach. He also used Professor Ram Sharan Sharma
Ram Sharan Sharma (26 November 1919 – 20 August 2011) was an Indian historian and Indologist who specialised in the history of Ancient and early Medieval India. He taught at Patna University and Delhi University (1973–85) and was visiting f ...
's works to have an idea on ancient India. It was originally published in French in 1967 and translated to English by J. Duncan M. Derrett in 1973. It has since become the standard textbook for those who wish to learn about the history of the Indian legal system. His work condenses the enormous volume of Indian literature into one fairly short book — unlike P.V Kane who published his findings in an incredibly dense and long series of books. Wigmore (1940) notes that authors of elaborate treatises represented "...mainly their own elaborations of detail as to what the law ''ought'' to be; but they did not necessarily represent what the law really was in practice." He then illustrates Lingat's approach with a quote translated from his ''L'Influence Indoue dans 'ancien Droit Siamois'' (Paris 1937) p. 18: The dharmasastras [books of law] are not ordinary legal treatises expounding the actual law of the country. The science of law was connected with the study of Veda [religious texts]. The latter leads to the study of the rules which necessarily control human societies and are independent of human wills. It reveals to men the principles which should inspire their conduct if they wish to live the meritorious life. They are thus analogous to the European "natural law
Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...
." But while the European theorists of the "natural law" seldom went beyond the vague region of generalities and the exposition of fundamental principles, the Hindus proceeded to deduce from these principles a mass of detailed and precise rules. Thus the dharmasastras, while theoretically expounding only natural (not positive) 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 ...
, in fact regulated the entire legal life of man. Hence they were liable to be mistaken for genuine legal treatises.
''Journal of the Siam Society'' (JSS)
Lingat was a frequent contributor to the ''Journal of the Siam Society
The ''Journal of the Siam Society'' (JSS) is a scholarly journal published by the Siam Society in Bangkok since 1904.
History
The ''Journal of the Siam Society'' is published by The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage in Bangkok, Thailand. At th ...
''. Some of the articles that he wrote, or which refer to his published works, have been made available on line by the Siamese Heritage Protection Program.
*
* Vol. 27.1 1935 Le Culte du Bouddha d'Emeraude Lingat, R.
* Vol. 28.2 1935 Les trois Bangkok recorders (Notes) Lingat, R.
*
See also
* 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 nat ...
* Classical Hindu law
Classical Hindu law is a category of Hindu law (dharma) in traditional Hinduism, taken to begin with the transmittance of the Vedas and ending in 1772 with the adoption of "A Plan for the Administration of Justice in Bengal" by the Bengal gover ...
* Classical Hindu law in practice Classical Hindu law in practice originates from community, not a state polity. In this way, particular groups of society began to gain influence in the creation and administration of law. Primary corporate groups, Kingships, and Brahmins were the fa ...
* Dhammasattha
''Dhammasattha'' ("treatise on the law") is the Pali name of a genre of literature found in the Indianized kingdoms of Western mainland Southeast Asia (modern Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, and Yunnan) principally written in Pali, Burmese, Mon ...
* Law of Thailand
The laws of Thailand are based on the civil law, but have been influenced by common law (see also world legal systems).
Sources of law
The Rattanakosin Kingdom and the four traditionally counted preceding kingdoms, collectively called Siam ...
* Legal realism
Legal realism is a naturalistic approach to law. It is the view that jurisprudence should emulate the methods of natural science, i.e., rely on empirical evidence. Hypotheses must be tested against observations of the world.
Legal realists be ...
* Penal Code of India
The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established in ...
* Rta
RTA may refer to:
Media
* Radio and Television Arts, program at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
* Radio Television Afghanistan
** RTA TV, an Afghan channel
* Radiodiffusion Télévision Algérienne
* Real time attack, a game speedrun
Scienc ...
References
External links
List of works and holdings at WorldCat®
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lingat, Robert
1892 births
1972 deaths
Hindu law