Celui de Paris forme la première; il est composé de 7 Chambres et de 42 Magistrats: il a eu 72,808 affaires à ses rôles. Les Tribunaux de Rouen, Bordeaux, Lyon et Marseille, forment la seconde classe: ils sont composés de 3 Chambres et de 12 Juges. Le Tribunal de Rouen a eu à juger 16,788 affaires; celui de Bordeaux, 15,375; celui de Lyon, 14,232; le Tribunal de Marseille a eu à juger seulement 5,980 affaires. Les Tribunaux de Strasbourg et de Nantes forment la troisième classe: ils sont composés de 2 Chambres et de 10 Juges. De ces deux siéges, le premier, sur 8,595 litiges qui lui ont été soumis, en a terminé 8,574 par 4,143 jugemens contradictoires définitifs, 3,599 jugemens par défaut, et 832 radiations. Il ne lui restait à juger, à la fin d'août 1830, que 21 causes, dont aucune n'était arriérée. Le Tribunal de Nantes, sur 5,082 affaires, n'en a terminé que 4,644 par 2,405 jugemens contradictoires, 1,388 jugemens par défaut, et 851 radiations. Il en a laissé, à la fin d'août 1830, 438, parmi lesquelles s'en trouvaient 365 qui avaient plus de trois mois d'inscription au rôle. A Nantes, où le nombre des procès a été bien inférieur, celui des décisions préparatoires est plus élevé. En matière de police correctionnelle, le Tribunal de Strasbourg a rendu 48,218 jugemens, dont une grande partie portent sur des délits forestiers; celui de Nantes, 1,990. Près de ce dernier Tribunal, une Chambre temporaire a été créée et prorogée par ordonnances des 19 juin 1828 et 30 décembre 1829. La quatrième classe comprend les Tribunaux de deux Chambres et de neuf Juges: ils sont au nombre de 58. Celui de Grenoble se place au premier rang de cette catégorie, et celui de Quimper au dernier; l'un a eu 13,223 litiges à ses rôles, l'autre n'en a eu que 596. Tous les Tribunaux de cette classe se constituent en Cours d'assises la loi du 4 mars dernier, sur la nouvelle composition de ces Cours, a donc allégé leur service. : Les Tribunaux de Toulouse et de Lille, composés chacun de 2 Chambres et de 8 Juges, forment la cinquième classe. Dans le Tribunal de Toulouse, les mises au rôle s'élèvent à 10,896; dans celui de Lille, ils sont de 2,972. La sixième classe comprend les Tribunaux de 2 Chambres et de 7 Juges: ils sont au nombre de 13. Cette série commence par celui de Caen, qui a eu 9,672 affaires à juger; elle se termine par celui de Bastia, qui n'en a eu que 1,791. La septième classe comprend les Tribunaux, au nombre 48, composés d'une Chambre et de 4 Juges; elle commence par celui de Vienne, et finit par celui de Brest. Dans le premier, les rôles ont reçu 8,960, inscriptions, dans le second 922. Enfin, la huitième et dernière classe, la plus nombreuse de toutes, et qui comprend 233 Tribunaux, est formée des Tribunaux d'une Chambre et de 3 Juges. On trouve au premier rang le Tribunal de Largentière, et au dernier celui de Loudéac celui-ci n'a eu que 335 causes à ses rôles, l'autre en a eu 10,960. : On voit, par ces seuls chiffres, qui représentent les deux termes extrêmes de chaque série, combien différent les occupations de certains siéges appartenant à la même classe, ou même à des catégories diverses. C'est en continuant à réunir de pareils documens que l'on pourra poser à l'avenir les bases des changemens qui pourraient être jugés nécessaires dans l'organisation des Tribunaux. Je borne, Sire, à ces aperçus les observations que j'ai cru devoir soumettre à Votre Majesté. La connaissance de cette statistique livrera aux publicistes, en même temps qu'aux magistrats, un riche sujet de méditations. Je répète que je suis loin de me dissimuler combien ce travail est encore impar fait; mais il ne faut pas perdre de vue que c'est un premier essai, dont il n'existe nulle part de modèle pour les affaires civiles. Cette statistique devant être continuée et publiée tous les ans, les améliorations dont elle paraîtra susceptible devront s'y introduire successivement, et l'administration secondée, j'en suis sûr d'avance, par le concours éclairé de la magistrature française, pourra rendre cette publication de plus en plus digne des suffrages de Votre Majesté, en la rendant chaque année plus utile au pays.... Je suis, avec le plus profond respect, Sire, de Votre Majesté le très-humble et très-fidèle serviteur, LE GARDE DES SCEAUX DE FRANCE, MINISTRE SECRETAIRE D'ETAT AU DEPARTEMENT DE LA JUSTICE, Paris, le 15 Octobre, 1831. BARTHE.. STATE OF LAW IN THE IONIAN ISLANDS. [Extracted from a Letter, in modern Greek, addressed by a Judge (M. Zambelly) of the Ionian Islands to Mr. C. P. Cooper, and translated by that gentleman for the L. M.] Ar present we are governed by the same laws which existed before the downfal of the Venetian Republic. They are called Statuti Veneti, and were arranged and confirmed from the 6th of September, 1242, to the end of the Venetian dynasty. Besides these laws, the acts of the Legislative Assembly, published subsequently to the year 1818, are in force. Some of the latter repeal the Fideicommissi e le prelazioni e recupere degli Immobili, arrange the subjects of feuds more methodically, and abolish usury and Livellazioni non emfiteutichi. The rest treat of criminal subjects, and principally relate to the bearing of arms, piracy, and offences of public servants, &c. The Tribunals of the Ionian States have the before-mentioned laws for guides in their decisions. In cases not provided for by those laws, the Judges decide according to precedent (Giurisprudenza dei Giudizj), and according to the decisions of the High Court of State or Supreme Council of Justice. For commercial matters there is as yet no separate code; and the Tribunal of Commerce follows the general principles of justice and equity. There is an order too of the Government, enjoining it to adopt the rules laid down in Azuni's Dictionary.1 You ask me if there are any works which may facilitate the general comprehension of the laws of the Ionian Islands, or at least any collections of the decrees of the Courts. Unhappily there is nothing of the kind but a short collection of the Sentences of the Supreme Court, with some Orders and Circulars directed to the other tribunals to guide them in doubtful cases. The Courts here use the new procedure, published in the year 1825, and which, amongst other changes and reforms, improved the mode of proceeding in criminal cases, imitating generally the English system, except in the juries, which we do not possess. The Judges, however, have far too much liberty in punishing crimes; the Venetian penal laws being alto 1 Dizionario Universale Ragionato della Giurisprudenza Mercantile, Nice, 1786, 4 vols. 4to. gether out of use and unserviceable, on account of their confusion, incomprehensiveness, and severity. This evil will perhaps be remedied by the action of laws now in preparation. The Civil Code, which is almost a copy of the French, has already been discussed in the Legislative Assembly, and approved, except the chapters on succession and inheritance, and those on mortgages, on which the discussions will be renewed. The projects of this Code, and of the Codes of Commerce and Procedure and the Penal Code, are printed solely for the use of the Legislative Assembly, not for private individuals; so that it is impossible for me to send you them until they receive their final form and are approved. STATE OF JURIDICAL LEARNING ON THE CONTINENT. [The Letter from which the following extracts are taken, has just been received by the Editor from one of the first continental jurists, whose name we should be proud to annex to it, had we time to apply to him for leave. It was written in English, and the extracts are printed verbatim; and it will not detract from the reader's surprise to be told that this gentleman writes with equal facility in Dutch, German, Italian, and French. We quote the inquiries he makes, as well as the information he gives, because they appear to us to be equally \llustrative.] or what it is Not many days after your acceptable letter of the 3d January I made Dr. Birnbaum acquainted with your wishes respecting the Antrag (project) f M. Von Rotteck for the Abolition of Tithes, to which his book is a reply. He may form you at the same time what has been the issue of this legislative transaction likely to have, which myself I am quite ignorant of, though it seen the hue and cry for the free press has swallowed up the tithe interest among the Iadians. My friend seems to thrive at Bonn, notwithstanding the Regia Rhenana, like all other Universities, and we may well say, like every thing belonging to science, is for obvious causes now in a depressed condition. He is lecturing with success on branches of law not taught before in Germany, and may be called ein fruchtbarer Schriftsteller, (fruitful writer) as since his erudite and laborious work on the nature of Tithes, I find he has again been furnishing an elaborate article on Criminal Law in the journal of Mittermaier and Rosshirt. I regret as much as he does that your too rapid course through Germany did not allow you to make his personal acquaintance, as but few of his countrymen are so conversant with English Legislation, and so well qualified to give to an Englishman, according to his own technical ideas, a proper account of what you might occasionally wish to have explained of continental legal institutions. My other former friends from Louvain, dispersed by the Revolution, like the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem, are plodding on each in his way. Mr. Mone, actually for some time at Carlsruhe, prints an Historical Commentaire to Reinecke Fuchs, and Warnkonig is ransacking the libraries of Bruges and Ghent for a large collection of inedita Flandrica. Besides Savigny's 6th and last volume, no first rate Law book has been published for the last Semestre.' The 1 A former letter from the same correspondent contains the following passage :— “ M. Hugo m'écrit (Nov. 1831,) que la onzième edition de son Histoire du Droit est sous presse; du reste je ne trouve guère des ouvrages marquans sur les notices Zeitschrift wants not learning, but taste and genius seem to inspire her less than they did when under Savigny's superintendance. Burchardi upon the in integrum restitutio is a work of labour and extension, but I have not found sufficiently ex+ plained in it what the matter has most obscure and difficult. Here in Holland the only publication of note was a new volume of Schulting's Note ad Dig. by Mr. Smallenburg, a useful engine for the detailed study of the Civil Law. It is a sad thing that this political bustle affects so much even those who have, and will have, nothing to do with it. Yet I must point out to your attention as a journalist and a cultivator of scientific jurisprudence (if you are not already acquainted with them) two works of distinguished character, both, indeed, belonging to one of the few States to which some tranquillity is left, I mean, to Tuscany. The first of them is Mr. Micali's Storia degli Italiani primitivi, intended to be on a larger scale and better established grounds than was the author's Italia avanti il dominio dei Romani. The publication will commence in July next by subscription, and the manifesto or notice is to be found in the Antologie of Florence. Since the time of Vico, and much more since Niebuhr, such researches are justly thought narrowly linked with the study of the Roman Law. The other work I am to speak of is that of Carmignani, both in theory and practice deemed one of the first criminalists of Italy. It is entitled Teoria delle leggi della Sicurezza Sociale. The second volume is already printing, yet I saw but the first. This contains the most general principles of criminal law, a branch of legislation for which, bye the bye, Tuscany stands in high reputation. I cannot state precisely the author's theory to be a new one, but for liberality and humanity of principles, united to legislative prudence—for subtlety and exactness of thoughtfor elegance of style, variety and completeness of juridical literature, particularly of the recent productions of Italy and France-I dare say you will find it well worth the name of the author and the country he belongs to. I think you will find it, too, a work consolatory to the feelings of those few friends to social order who bewail the daily abuse of liberal principles, and the disrepute they have consequently fallen into. This puts me in mind of another recent publication, probably not unknown to you, that of Lerminier's Philosophie du Droit, which has been signalized as a very Philosophy of Revolution.3 This young lawyer had raised (and justly) high expectations of his talents and zeal for the advancement of juridical science in his country. I feel highly gratified by the receipt of Mr. Lloyd's Reports, with regret that they are not to be continued, as such collections are for obvious reasons still more desirable in mercantile law than in any other. Besides, there is little done at this des libraires, et vous devez vous être aperçu même en Allemagne les études serieuses se ressentent de la tendance politique." The second edition of Mittermaier's Strafverfahren in Vergleichung mit dem Französischen und Englischen Strafprocess, was also promised about this time.-Edit. 1 Zeitschrift für geschichtliche Rechtwissenschaft, herausgegeben (according to the title page) von F. C. von Savigny, C. F. Eichhorn und I. F. L. Göschen.-Edit. 2 We intend reviewing M. Carmignani's work as soon as the second volume arrives.-Edit. "We shall shortly review this work also. It comprises the substance of Lectures delivered by the author as Professeur de l'Histoire Générale des Législations Comparées au College de France. The motto is singular but apt: Le droit, c'est la vie. -Edit. time in its behalf. I received some commentaries on the Code de Commerce from different Italian states, but they confer no other information on their readers than that of some local modifications, and of the very different constructions put on the same law according to the individual humour of each nation. In Rome, for instance, where the French code is commented by Cesarini-" secondo lo spirito delle leggi pontificii," this is very striking.1 For the information about the Encyclopedia my thanks; we have it now here. May I entreat you to tell me in your next letter, which I hope will be speedily, what edition of Blackstone is esteemed the best now, as coming the nearest to the present state of the law. I know that of Professor Christian, but I suppose other and more recent annotators may have succeeded. Mr. Bonaini informs me in his last that the publication of the Giornale di Legislazione has been suspended for a while by accidental causes, but that it will shortly take place. Is the study of jurisprudence at the London University still as languishing as you told me it was-the professorship of civil law not filled, and lessons little frequented? Is it perchance going on a little better in King's College? and what professors have been appointed there for the law? I'll be obliged to you for some strictures on the enseignement of jurisprudence from time to time, as far as occasional leisure will permit you, and will be consistent with your practical and more pressing occupations. Do you believe Mr. Cathcart's translation will go off in England? Methinks the work must at least interest the general class of the learned, if not particularly the lawyers. Have you any satisfactory historical accounts of the two English universities analogous to those of Savigny? But not to accumulate questions indiscreetly, I'll rather stop here, praying you to consider the present letter as a proof of my sincere wish to keep alive our literary correspondence, and to be believed &c. &c. April 18, 1832. 'The Spanish Code of Commerce, noticed in our last Number, has been ably commented on by Mittermaier.-Edit. |