Excerpt from The Southern Law Review, and Chart of the Southern Law and Collection Union, Vol. 2: January, 1873

Notwithstanding the theory of the French law, and the positive provision of the Code referred to, in actual practice the decisions of the Court of Cassation are cited in the courts, and do control the subsequent decisions. If that court adheres with reasonable uniform ity to its own rulings of the law, as it does in reality, the inferior courts are inclined to follow them to save the costs of an appeal, and the parties themselves acquiesce. The conclusion to be deduced in this, as well as in many other instances of apparent antagonistical diversities, is, that, whatever may be our abstract theories, the practi cal results reached are very much the same, under similar circum stances, under all systems. Men are the same substantially, all the world over; and, to use the words of Montesquieu already quoted, reasonable at bottom, subject even their prejudices to fixed rules.

From the foregoing summary it will be seen that a large class of controversies among employers and workmen is entrusted, in the first place, to Prud'hommes selected among, and by themselves, from whose decision an appeal lies, in all cases in which the amount in controversy exceeds a certain sum, to the Tribunals of Commerce; that these latter have, in addition, a large ori ginal jurisdiction over acts of commerce, with appeal, where the amount justifies it, to the Imperial Courts; that all other matters of civil litigation are left primarily to Justices of the Peace, and to the Courts of First Instance, with appeal, in all cases where the amount in controversy is over a certain sum to the latter, and from the latter, with like qualification, to the Imperial Courts; that the Imperial Courts, in addition to their appellate jurisdiction in civil cases, also have cognizance of criminal charges; and that the Court of Cassa tion remains in last resort, for the correction of errors Of form in the proceedings, and errors of law, In every civil case of real importance, the litigants are entitled, it will be noticed, to have the matters in controversy passed upon by at least two tribunals, upon all questions of fact, and by three tribunals upon questions of law. Moreover, although there is no jury in civil actions, the constitution of the courts is such as to secure all the ben efits of that institution, so far as the litigants themselves are con cerned. The distinctive advantages of a jury, considered only in relation to the interests of the litigants, is in having the opinion of twelve Of their fellow-citizens upon the facts. Now, all the French courts are composer] of a number of judges; and the Imperial courts, upon whom devolves the final decision of facts, is never composed of less than seven, and most frequently of from ten to fifteen members. The litigants, therefore, have a jury in the court.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.