François Douaren (or le Douaren) (also sometimes spelled ''Duaren''; Latin: Franciscus Duarenus) (1509, near

Saint-Brieuc Saint-Brieuc (, Breton language, Breton: ''Sant-Brieg'' , Gallo language, Gallo: ''Saent-Berioec'') is a city in the Côtes-d'Armor Departments of France, department in Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in northwestern France. History ...

– 1559,

Bourges Bourges ( ; ; ''Borges'' in Berrichon) is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre (Cher), Yèvre. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Cher (department), Cher, and also was the capital city of the former provin ...

) was a French jurist and professor of law at the

University of Bourges The University of Bourges () was a university located in Bourges, France. It was founded by Louis XI in 1463 and closed during the French Revolution. Until the mid-17th century, lack of suitable legal training at home meant many Scots seeking to ...

. After studies in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

under Budé and in

, Douaren worked as an advocate for the

Parlement of Paris The ''Parlement'' of Paris () was the oldest ''parlement'' in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. Parlements were judicial, rather than legislative, bodies and were composed of magistrates. Though not representative bodies in the p ...

. In 1538, he was called to teach at Bourges. Following a bitter dispute with Baro, he abandoned the chair for Paris until Baro's death in 1550, after which Douaren returned to teach at Bourges. Like his compatriots

Jacques Cujas Jacques Cujas (or Cujacius) (Toulouse, 1522 – Bourges, 4 October 1590) was a French legal expert. He was prominent among the legal humanists or ''mos gallicus'' school, which sought to abandon the work of the medieval Commentators and conc ...

François Hotman François Hotman (23 August 1524 – 12 February 1590) was a French lawyer and writer, associated with the legal humanists and with the monarchomaques, who struggled against absolute monarchy. His first name is often written 'Francis' in Engli ...

and

Hugues Doneau Hugues Doneau, commonly referred also by the Latin form Hugo Donellus (23 December 1527, in Chalon-sur-Saône – 4 May 1591, in Altdorf bei Nürnberg), was a French law professor and one of the leading representatives of French Legal humanists, ...

, Douaren was one of the leading representatives of the legal humanist school of thought within the science 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 (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

on the European continent. These 16th-century French law professors applied the philological methods of the Italian

humanists Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" has ...

to legal texts. It was their aim to arrive at a historically more accurate understanding of the texts of the Roman

Corpus Iuris Civilis The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, enacted from 529 to 534 by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It is also sometimes referred ...

. In addition to numerous commentaries on the ''Corpus'', Douaren wrote a leading commentary on the Roman

law of obligations The law of obligations is one branch of private law under the civil law (legal system), civil law legal system and so-called "mixed" legal systems. It is the body of rules that organizes and regulates the rights and duties arising between individua ...

, ''Commentarius de pactis'' (1544), which greatly influenced modern theories of obligations. His 1544 programme of studies, ''De ratione docendi discendique iuris epistola'', was the first statement of the '' mos gallicus'', the French Humanist approach to higher education. Its core contents – language studies, introductory classes on the base of the Justinian Code, a methodical approach based on the laws of the ''Corpus'' – came to be introduced at most European legal faculties.

Works

References

*Wilfrid Vogt: ''Franciscus Duarenus, 1509-1559 — Sein didaktisches Reformprogramm und seine Bedeutung für die Entwicklung die Zivilrechtsdogmatik''. Stuttgart et al. 1971 (German PhD dissertation on Douaren's life and works) *

External links

''D. Francisci Duareni I. C. celeberrimi omnia quae quidem hactenus edita fuerunt opera''
Frankfurt 1592 (digitized version) {{DEFAULTSORT:Douaren, Francois 1509 births 1559 deaths 16th-century French lawyers French Renaissance humanists French male non-fiction writers