The documents presented below are linked to the articles accessible here.
The Great War marked the scientific production of law schools. Various media testify to the commitment of jurists and show their analyses of the place of the law in these exceptional circumstances. War in its various aspects thus became an important subject of theses during and after the conflict.
« À la Faculté de Droit », [Posthumous defense of Ludovic Valatx's thesis, at the Toulouse Faculty of Law, December 18, 1916], L'Express du Midi, 22 December 1917.
Source: Toulouse-Rosalis city library, class. no P014Ludovic Valatx (1875-1916) was a medical doctor. Originally from Carmaux, Tarn, he managed the mines and factories of Peyrebrune, Tarn and obtained his degree in 1911. He started a doctoral thesis but it was still unfinished in 1914 when he was mobilized. Sick, he was evacuated from the front in early 1916 and died on August 10, 1916 in Arcachon. He was able to finish writing his thesis but it was not defended. On December 18, 1917, the Toulouse Faculty of Law awarded him the title of Doctor after a posthumous defense. The local press echoed this, as did L'Express du Midi on December 22, 1917.
« Post-scriptum », Ludovic Valatx, Monographie sur le mouvement de la population dans le département du Tarn, de 1801 à 1911 ; résultats, causes, remèdes. Thèse pour le doctorat de l'Université de Toulouse, Albi : Impr. coopérative du Sud-Ouest, 1917, XII-209 p.
Source: Cujas library, class. no 45.058 1917-11 VALDigitalized document available here.
Printed in Albi in 1917, the thesis for the doctorate of Ludovic Valatx has as its president Houques-Fourcade and suffragans Thomas and Cézar-Bru. Following the 200 pages of the thesis, which evokes the department of the Tarn and its demographic evolution in connection with the rural exodus, a postscript is inserted. It retranscribes the impressions of the physician assistant-major Valatx on the front in October 1915 remembering his native land.
« Préface », Gabriel Carrière, Essai de synthèse professionnelle. La représentation des intérêts et l'importance des éléments professionnelles dans l'évolution et le gouvernement des peuples. Thèse pour le doctorat de l'Université de Toulouse. Albi : Impr. des orphelins-apprentis, 1917, III-331 p.
Source: Cujas library, class. no 45.058 1917-5 CARFew theses were defended at the Toulouse Faculty of Law during the war. Although the conflict was generally only indirectly addressed, these writings were driven by the conviction that the war was, for the jurist, a true revelation of tomorrow's world. In this sense, doctoral work, which prepares for peace and the future, is another way of serving. This is what emerges particularly from the preface to Gabriel Carrière's thesis, presented here, and from the following document, a dispatch from Bertrand Couget's thesis.
« [Sending] », Bertrand Couget, Les colonies allemandes avant et pendant la guerre 1914-1917. Thèse pour le doctorat de l'Université de Toulouse, Toulouse : V. Rivière, 1917, 174 p.
Source: Cujas library, class. no 45.058 1917-6 COUThe feeling of mission was all the more present in Bertrand Couget as he dedicated his work to his brother who had died in combat in August 1914.
[Results of the 1915 thesis competition]], Registres de délibérations du conseil et de l'assemblée de la Faculté de Droit de Paris, séance de l'assemblée du vendredi 16 juillet 1915.
Source: National archives, class. no AJ/16/1799.The Paris Faculty of Law was characterized by the attempt to maintain continuity at all costs. Thus, the thesis competition was held in 1915 as before the war. Future professors were among the laureates: René Cassin, Paul Esmein and Henry Solus. However, the competition was for theses defended in 1914, and of the three theses laureates mentioned, Esmein and Solus were at the front and Cassin was no longer there after being seriously wounded. Normality was only a facade.
Transcription : « Concours de ThèsesMr Joseph Barthélemy fait connaitre les propositions de la Commission du concours de Thèses de doctorat. La Commission propose d'accorder sept prix et six mentionsPrix :M.M. Amiaud Marie, Joseph, Félix, Émile, Andréné à Paris, le 2 Décembre 1883.Bechmann, Joseph, Paul, Renéné à Paris, le 3 février 1888.de Bourbon, Sixte Ferdinand, Marie, Ignace, Pierrené à Rorschacherberg (Suisse) le 1 août 1886.Cassin, Samuel, Renéné à Bayonne (Bsses Pyrénées) le 5 octobre 1887.Esmein, Paul, Edmond, Julienné à Paris, le 20 juin 1886.Le Roy, Yves, Julesné à Paris le 14 mai 1890.Lhospied Henry, Paul, Émilené à Nevers, le 19 février 1891.Mentions :M.M. Abgarowiez, Ernest, Victorné à Focsani (Roumanie) le 14 octobre 1885.Cassin, Samuel, Renéné à Bayonne (Bsses Pyrées) le 5 octobre 1887.Cheïnisse Léonné à Lupecana (Russie) le 8 février 1871.Le Trocquer Yves, Marie, François, né à Pontrieux (C. d. Nord) le 4 octobre 1877 […] »
[Results of the 1915 thesis competition], Registres de délibérations du conseil et de l'assemblée de la Faculté de Droit de Paris, séance de l'assemblée du vendredi 16 juillet 1915 (end).
Source: National archives, class. no AJ/16/1799.
Transcription : « […] Solus Julien, Léopold, Henriné à Vervins (Aisne) le 9 juin 1892.Triandafil, Ernestné à Husi (Roumanie) le 21 novembre 1888.Les propositions de la Commission sont adoptées à l'unanimité.L'État ne mettant à la disposition de la Faculté qu'une somme de mille francs, pour le prix des thèses, la Faculté décide qu'une somme de quatre cents francs sera prélevée, cette année, sur les revenus disponibles de la succession Goullencourt.Mr le Doyen fait connaître à la Faculté qu'il n'y a eu, cette année, aucun mémoire déposé pour le concours de doctorat, ni pour le Concours Rossi.Il n'y a pas eu, non plus, en 1915, de concours général entre les élèves de troisième année de toutes les Facultés de Droit de l'État.La séance est levée à six heures. »
[Results of the 1916 thesis competition], Registres de délibérations du conseil et de l'assemblée de la Faculté de Droit de Paris, séance de l'assemblée du jeudi 25 janvier 1917.
Source: National archives, class. no AJ/16/1799.At the Paris Faculty of Law, although the number of theses defended fell, the themes and subjects diversified and showed the impact of the war on the thinking of researchers.
Transcription : « Nomination de la commission du concours des thèses et du Rapporteur général des concours.
Mr le Doyen invite l'assemblée à procéder à la nomination de la Commission du Concours des thèses soutennues en 1916. Cinq thèses seulement ont été retenues pour le concours sur les cinquante cinq dont la soutenance a eu lieu l'année dernière et qui se répartissent ainsi : Droit civil 12 Droit commercial 6 Droit international privé 1 Législation industrielle 1 Droit pénal 2 Histoire du droit privé 1 Droit administratif 7 Économie politique 4 Législation financière 6 Législation coloniale 1 Droit public 1 Droit constitutionnel 1 Histoire du droit public 4 Droit international public 6 Économie rurale 2
Conformément à l'avis de Mr le Doyen, la Faculté estime qu'en raison du petit nombre des thèses retenues, il suffit de constituer une Commission de cinq membres. Les membres désignés sont M.M. Leseur, Paul Fournier, Piédelièvre, Wahl, Percerou. »
Paul Thomas, « Blommaert (W.), Les châtelains de Flandre. Etude d'histoire constitutionnelle. (Université de Gand. Recueil de travaux publiés par la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres, 46e fascicule), 1915 », Revue du Nord, volume 6, n°23, August 1920, p. 232-235.
Source: PerséeDigitalized document available hereThis thesis, defended at the University of Ghent in 1914, was printed in Ghent in 1915. It was written in French, under the direction of Professor Pirenne, who had been abused by the Germans, and was a thumbing of the nose at the occupying forces.
Georges Kaeckenbeeck, International Rivers: A Monograph Based on Diplomatic Documents, Londres, Sweet & Maxwell, 1918. Grotius Society Publications, n° 1.
Source: Cujas library, class. no 45.592-1Kaeckenbeeck began his law studies in 1911 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he was a student of Maurice Bourquin. He was mobilized in 1914, became seriously ill and was transported to England. Recovering, he benefited from the intervention of Lord Curzon, to whom he had been recommended by Bourquin and Charles De Visscher, to enter Magdalen College of Oxford University. There he obtained successively a bachelor of civil law (1916), then a doctorate of civil law (1921). Study on international rivers for the British delegates to the Paris Conference of 1919.
[Front page], Revue générale de droit international public, Tome 24, 1917.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.The jurists mobilized in the journals to defend French legal science and turned them into veritable vessels of anti-German propaganda. The Revue générale de droit international public, considering its subject matter, is particularly concerned by this movement.
Alexandre Mérignhac, « De la sanction des infractions au droit des gens commises, au cours de la guerre européenne », Revue générale de droit international public, Paris, 1917, p. 5-56.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.Digitalized document available here.
Confronted with the war and the exactions committed by the Central Empires and their allies, Mérignhac saw his ideals flouted and hardened his position. Preventive measures had failed; violations of the laws of armed conflicts had to be punished. Mérignhac considers here the measures that can be taken against the Germans and their allies, during the conflict but also after it, measures ranging from civil and criminal liability to various forms of retaliation.
[Front page], Recueil général des lois et des arrêts en matière civile, criminelle, administrative et de droit public fondé par J.-B. Sirey, Paris : Sirey, 1915.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.Faced with the multiplication of emergency texts, the Recueil Sirey is an indispensable tool that allows jurists to ensure a permanent dissemination and explanation of these exceptional measures while ensuring the respect of a minimal form of republican legality.
« Bibliographie mensuelle. [excerpt] », Recueil général des lois et des arrêts en matière civile, criminelle, administrative et de droit public fondé par J.-B. Sirey, Paris : Sirey, 1915.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.In addition to the dissemination of war legislation and jurisprudence, the Recueil Sirey also ensures the communication of war literature through its monthly bibliography.
Albert Wahl, « La législation civile de la guerre jusqu'au 31 décembre 1914 », Revue trimestrielle de droit civil, vol. XIII, 1914.
Source: Cujas library, class. no RM 4-1914.One of the objectives of jurists during the war, through their reviews, was to fight to safeguard a law that was constructed and systematized, although adapted to the rigors of the times. Some, like Albert Wahl (professor of civil law at the Paris Faculty of Law) in this text, questioned the consequences of the war legislation adopted since July 1914 and its constitutionality. But as long as the republican framework of the regime and the major mechanisms of the rule of law remained, jurists seemed to accept the inevitable and necessary infringements - not to say violations - of individual rights and public liberties.
A.Albert Wahl, « La législation civile de la guerre jusqu'au 31 décembre 1914 », Revue trimestrielle de droit civil, vol. XIII, 1914 (2/2).
Source Bibliothèque Cujas, cote RM 4-1914.
Albert Wahl, « La guerre considérée comme force majeure, spécialement en matière de vente de marchandises », Revue trimestrielle de droit civil, vol. XIV, 1915, p. 383-418.
Source: Cujas library, class. no RM 4-1915.Digitalized document available here.
In contrast to the reviews intended for lawyers specialized in public law, private law reviews present war legislation under the prism of technicality, as in this article by Wahl. Relying on the Civil Code and the circular of the Minister of War of November 24, 1914, the professor endeavors to demonstrate that although war can be considered as a case of force majeure, several hypotheses must be distinguished in the sale of goods.
Joseph Barthélémy, « Notes de droit public sur le droit public en temps de guerre - I. L'augmentation de l'autorité gouvernementale », Revue du droit public, 1915, p. 134 et s.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.Digitalized document available here.
In this series of six articles published between 1915 and 1917 and devoted to "public law in time of war", Joseph Barthélemy, professor of constitutional law at the Paris Faculty of Law, defends a republican legality of war. He argued that peacetime legal principles could be limited without these limitations being considered illegal.
Joseph Barthélémy, « Notes de droit public sur le droit public en temps de guerre - II. La liberté d'opinion et la censure », Revue du droit public, 1915., p. 310 et s.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.Digitalized document available here.
Second part.
Joseph Barthélémy, « Droit public en temps de guerre - III. Le gouvernement et la loi », Revue du droit public, 1915, p. 545 et s.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.Digitalized document available here.
Third part.
Joseph Barthélémy, « Droit public en temps de guerre - IV. Diminution des garanties des citoyens devant la répression pénale », Revue du droit public, 1916, p. 73 et s.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.Digitalized document available here.
Fourth part.
Joseph Barthélémy, « Droit public en temps de guerre - Les pouvoirs publics et le commandement militaire », Revue du droit public, 1916, p. 552 et s.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.Digitalized document available here.
Fifth part.
Joseph Barthélémy, « Droit public en temps de guerre - Les rapports entre les pouvoirs publics et le commandement militaire », Revue du droit public, 1917, p. 146 et s.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.Digitalized document available here.
Sixth part.
Joseph Declareuil, « "Les Discours à la Nation Allemande" de J.-Gottlieb Fichte », Revue du droit public, 1917, p. 361-403.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.Digitalized document available here.
The Revue de droit public publishes here a rereading by Joseph Declareuil, a legal historian at the University of Toulouse, of Fichte's Addresses. With this text, which virulently attacks German historians and pangermanic theories, the Revue seems to assume a line of anti-German propaganda, which is sometimes to the detriment of legal science.
