Établissements de Saint Louis

The Établissements de Saint Louis (German: Decrees of St. Louis ) are among the most important collections of medieval customary rights ( coutumes ) in France . The work was written in old French and divided into three parts, of which the title of the first part gave the name for the entire work.

The first part consists of nine ordinances of King Louis IX. (Gen: "the saint"), which he had issued shortly before setting out on the crusade to Africa in 1270. They mainly regulate the competences and rules of procedure of the highest royal judicial authority installed in the Grand Châtelet in Paris . The following two parts were probably summarized by a lawyer up to 1273 . In the second part, in one hundred and sixty-six chapters, the customary rights of the Touraine and the Anjou are written down, in the third part in eighty-three chapters those of the Orléanais . The last part also defines the scope of the royal jurisdiction in the provinces in relation to the jurisdiction of the local feudal nobility.

Although this collection never attained an official status except for the first part, it was quickly used in several copies in several regions of France. It was quoted or used as a reference by legal scholars such as Montesquieu , which ultimately makes it important next to the Coutumes de Beauvaisis des Philippe de Beaumanoir , the Conseil è un ami des Pierre de Fontaines or the Livre de Jostice et de Plet .

Often are Établissements as the first all French constitutional provision according to capitularies Charlemagne considered.

literature

• FRP Akehurst: The Etablissements de Saint Louis: thirteenth-century law textes from Tours, Orléans and Paris (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), English translation of the Établissements