A Translator's Toolbox: The Law, Moreau-Lislet's Library, and the Presence of Multilingual Dictionaries in Nineteenth-Century Louisiana

• Author: Agustín Parise
• Position: Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Maastricht University (The Netherlands); LLB, LLD, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina); LLM, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University (USA); PhD, Maastricht University.
• Pages: 1163-1184

A Translator’s Toolbox: The Law, Moreau-Lislet’s

Library, and the Presence of Multilingual

Dictionaries in Nineteenth-Century Louisiana

Agustín Parise

INTRODUCTION

The private law of Louisiana—as encapsulated prominently in the

Louisiana Civil Code—presents two interesting features: this law is

applicable in a mixed jurisdiction and is drafted in the English language.

Louisiana indeed combines aspects of both common and civil law, and

jurists who intend to implement continental European principles may

value this interaction of systems while undertaking their practices and

studies in the common law and vice versa.1 After all, Louisiana may be

considered a “Civil Law island” partially surrounded by a “sea of Common

Law”—a status that has to be safeguarded to survive.2 In addition,

although the lingua franca now is English, the previous lingua franca

applied in Louisiana for a significant time period. The fact that the

Louisiana Constitution of 1845 instructed the bilingual publication in

French and English is relevant for understating the legal history of civil

Copyright 2016, by AGUSTÍN PARISE.

* Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Maastricht University (The

Netherlands); LLB, LLD, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina); LLM, Paul

M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University (USA); PhD, Maastricht

University.

This Article was drafted on the occasion of the Louisiana Law Review’s

2016 Symposium of the Civil Law held in Baton Rouge on March 18, 2016 to

celebrate the life and work of Alain A. Levasseur. The Author is indebted to

Georgia D. Chadwick and Vicenç F. Feliú for facilitating, in 2009, a copy of the

1832 manuscript inventory of Moreau-Lislet’s library. The title of this Article

found inspiration in the study by Robert Feikema Karachuk, A Workman’s Tools:

The Law Library of Henry Adams Bullard, 42 AM. J. LEGAL HIST. 160 (1998).

1. Agustín Parise, Report on the State of Louisiana to the Second Thematic

Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, 31 MISS. C. L. REV.

397, 403 (2013).

2. Agustín Parise, Non-Pecuniary Damages in the Louisiana Civil Code

Article 1928: Originality in the Early Nineteenth Century and Its Projected Use

in Further Codification Endeavors 14 (May 18, 2006) (unpublished LL.M. thesis,

Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University) (on file with the

Louisiana State University Law Library).

1164 LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 76

law codification in Louisiana.3 The Louisiana Constitution of 1868,

however, returned to mandatory promulgation in the English language.4

Spanish, another language that had significant presence in the

founding years of Louisiana,5 plays a significant role in fully

understanding the current private law in Louisiana vis-à-vis the private law

in Latin American jurisdictions. Scholars both of continental European

and common law systems may look to Louisiana for civil law terminology

in English.6 Alain A. Levasseur is well aware of those two interesting

features, as his work has reflected for a number of decades.

Levasseur defends the civil law from his position at Louisiana State

University, acting also as director of its Center for European Studies. He

holds law degrees from Université de Paris and Tulane University, and

honorary degrees from Université d’Aix-Marseille and Université de Paris

Panthéon Assas.7 Among his many works are the Louisiana Civil Code

Précis Series,8 where he showcases the unique composition of private law

in Louisiana, and his Dictionary of the Civil Code,9 where he excels in

presenting civil law terminology in English. Levasseur was one of the

members of the expert committee for the 2014 translation of the French

Civil Code into English by David W. Gruning, a major step undertaken to

showcase the civil law tradition among the English-language legal

discourse.10 Levasseur was also one of the translators of the Catala Avant-

3. See KATE WALLACH, RESEARCH IN LOUISIAN A LAW 10 (2d ed. 1960)

(citing LA. CONST. art. 132 (1845)).

4. LA. CONST. art. 109 (1868).

5. AGUSTÍN PAR ISE, HISTORIA DE LA CODIFICACIÓN CIVIL DEL ESTADO DE

LUISIANA Y SU INFLUENCIA EN EL CÓDIGO CIVIL ARGENTINO 31–54 (2013).

6. Parise, supra note 1, at 403.

7. See Alain A. Levasseur: Biography, LSU LAW CENTER, http://www.law.lsu

.edu/directory/pro files/alain-a-levasseur/ [https://perma.cc/J5FM-3MLW] (last visited

Feb. 17, 2016).

8. For additional information on the Louisiana Civil Code Précis Series, see

Susan Gualtier, Book Revie w, Louisiana Civil Code Précis Series, 5 J. CIV. L.

STUD. 305 (2012), and Louisiana Civil Code Précis Series, RUSSELL LONG CHAIR

& CCLS NEWSL. (Ctr. of Civil Law Studies, Baton Rouge, La.), June 2010, at 3,

available at http://www.law.lsu.edu/ccls/newsletter/ [https://perma.cc/X74J-

8WPG] (last visited Feb. 17, 2016).

9. For additional information on the Dictionary of the Civil Code, see

Dictionary of the Civil Code, RUSSELL LONG CHAIR & CCLS NEWSL. (Ctr. of Civil

Law Studies, Baton Rouge, La.), Dec. 2014, at 1, available at http://www.la w

.lsu.edu/ccls/newsletter/ [https://perma.cc/X74J-8WPG] (last visited Feb. 17, 2016).

10. See Legifrance Translations, LEGIFRANCE, http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr

/Traductions/en-English/Legifrance-translations [https://perma.cc/46SV-DEEP] (last

visited Dec. 1, 2015).