A Louisiana Theory of Juridical Acts

• Author: Nikolaos A. Davrados
• Position: Associate Professor of Law, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. LL.B., Ph.D. University of Athens School of Law
• Pages: 1120-1286

Louisiana Law Review Louisiana Law Review

Volume 80

Number 4

Summer 2020

Article 7

11-11-2020

A Louisiana Theory of Juridical Acts A Louisiana Theory of Juridical Acts

Nikolaos A. Davrados

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev

Part of the Civil Procedure Commons

Repository Citation Repository Citation

Nikolaos A. Davrados,

A Louisiana Theory of Juridical Acts

, 80 La. L. Rev. (2020)

Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol80/iss4/7

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital

Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital

Commons. For more information, please contact kreed25@lsu.edu.

346780-LSU_80-4_Text.indd 131346780-LSU_80-4_Text.indd 131 10/12/20 7:07 AM10/12/20 7:07 AM

A Louisiana Theory of Juridical Acts

Nikolaos A. Davrados*

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................ 1120

I. Historical Foundations of the Theory of Juridical Acts ............. 1127

A. The German Rechtsgeschäft ................................................ 1129

B. The French Acte Juridique................................................... 1139

C. Mixed Approaches and the Louisiana Juridical Act ............ 1152

II. Components of a Louisiana General Theory of

Juridical Acts.............................................................................. 1162

A. Juridical Acts as Operative Facts......................................... 1165

B. Structure of Juridical Acts ................................................... 1168

1. Manifestation of Will .................................................... 1171

a. Capacity ..................................................................1172

b. Consent ................................................................... 1178

i. Existence of Consent: Will ............................... 1178

ii. Communication of Consent:

Manifestation ................................................... 1179

iii. Correspondence Between Manifestation

and Will............................................................ 1189

iv. Licit Content .................................................... 1192

2. Legal Consequences...................................................... 1195

Copyright 2020, by NIKOLAOS A. DAVRADOS.

* Associate Professor of Law, Loyola University New Orleans College of

Law. LL.B., Ph.D. University of Athens School of Law; M.Jur. University of

Oxford Faculty of Law. The author wishes to thank Mary Garvey Algero, Arthur

Crais, David Cromwell, David Gruning, Nikos Koumoutzis, Melissa Lonegrass,

John Lovett, Olivier Moréteau, María Pabón, Ronald Scalise Jr., Dian Tooley-

Knoblett, John Randall Trahan, Tobie Lynn Tranchina, Collins Vallée, James

Etienne Viator, and Monica Hof Wallace for reading earlier drafts of this Article

and for their helpful comments. The author is also grateful to Dean Madeleine

Landrieu for the financial support of his research for this Article, to his research

assistants Bryan O’Neill, Cameron Robichaux, and Andre Stolier, and to the

editors of the Louisiana Law Review. Translations of foreign sources are the

author’s unless otherwise indicated. Any mistakes or omissions are the author’s

alone.

In memoriam A.N. Yiannopoulos and Saúl Litvinoff: eminent jurists, beloved

mentors and friends, founders of the modern Louisiana theory of juridical acts.

346780-LSU_80-4_Text.indd 132346780-LSU_80-4_Text.indd 132 10/12/20 7:07 AM10/12/20 7:07 AM

1120 LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 80

a. Object...................................................................... 1196

i. Legal Object: Legal Relationships,

Rights, Juridical Situations............................... 1197

ii. Relative Effect ..................................................1206

b. Cause ...................................................................... 1207

B. Classification of Juridical Acts............................................ 1210

1. Unilateral and Bilateral Juridical Acts .......................... 1211

2. Patrimonial and Extrapatrimonial Juridical Acts .......... 1218

a. Onerous and Gratuitous Patrimonial

Juridical Acts .......................................................... 1220

b. Constitutive, Translative, and Declarative

Juridical Acts .......................................................... 1222

i. French Categories .............................................1222

ii. German Alternatives......................................... 1228

c. Conservatory Acts, Acts of Administration,

and Acts of Disposition .......................................... 1243

3. Other Classifications ..................................................... 1250

C. Extinction of Juridical Acts ................................................. 1254

1. Termination of Valid Juridical Acts.............................. 1254

2. Nullity of Juridical Acts ................................................ 1256

III. Juridical Act and Juridical Fact..................................................1270

Conclusion.................................................................................. 1282

INTRODUCTION

Civil law systems have developed over time on the basis of general

principles that find their expression in civilian methodology and

terminology.1 “Juridical act” is a key term in the civilian lexicon that

expresses the fundamental principle of autonomy of the will.2 The notion

of juridical act is premised on the idea that a person’s legal position can

change—that is, the person can acquire, modify, transfer, or extinguish

rights—either by that person’s voluntary act (juridical act) or by operation

1. See A.N. YIANNOPOULOS, CIVIL LAW SYSTEM 94 (2d ed. 1999)

[hereinafter YIANNOPOULOS, CIVIL LAW SYSTEM]; Max Rheinstein, Common

Law and Civil Law: An Elementary Comparison, 22 REV. JUR. U.P.R. 90, 92–93

(1952).

2. See LITVINOF F & W. THOMAS TÊTE, LOUISIANA LEGAL TR ANSACTIONS:

THE CIVIL LAW OF JUR IDICAL ACTS v–vii (1969); EMILIO BETTI, TEORIA

GENERALE DEL NEGOZIO GIURIDICO 39–51 (2d ed. 1952).