Philippe Le Gras

Philippe Le Gras (* 1752 in Dijon ; † April 14, 1824 there ) was a French lawyer .

Life

Philippe Le Gras studied law and was the administrator of the parliament in his hometown at the beginning of the movement that led to the French Revolution . That he was initially averse to the required reorganization of the political situation is shown by his writing Le citoyen français ou mémoires historiques, politiques, physiques ... (London 1785), which protects the existing system . When the revolution broke out in 1789, he was exposed to persecution, but was able to evade them.

After Robespierre's overthrow (1794), Le Gras went to Paris , where he published a pamphlet for the benefit of the parents of the emigrants ( Pressante réclamation pour les pères et mères des émigrés , Paris 1795) and thus his in the capital, the seat of government Seeking promotion to a better position. He joined Hugues-Bernard Maret here , who had already become an influential man as one of the editors of the Moniteur universel and who later rose through his acquaintance with Napoleon Bonaparte to become Minister of State and Duke of Bassano. Through Maret's mediation, Le Gras was appointed a member of the commission in 1803 that was supposed to examine the draft of the commercial code that was later introduced. He took a significant part in the final editing of the code and is said to have prioritized the benefits of the tax authorities in particular . In 1806, as a reward for his efforts, he was appointed a lawyer with the State Council and a Knight of the Legion of Honor .

When the Code de Commerce was introduced , Le Gras wrote a brief guide on how to proceed before the commercial courts ( Notes sur la formule de procéder devant les tribunaux de commerce , 1807) and a treatise on bankruptcy ( Sur le faillités ) contains good discussions, but, like other laws of that time, always subordinates the benefit of the individual to the benefit of the treasury.

After the fall of Napoleon and his patron, the Duke of Bassano, Le Gras also lost his office. Since he could not hope for a re-employment in the civil service, he retired to Dijon, where he died on April 14, 1824 at the age of 72 years.

literature

• Philipp H. Külb : Grass (Philippe le) . In: Johann Samuelansch , Johann Gottfried Gruber (ed.): General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , 1st section, vol. 88 (1868), p. 44 f.

Web links

• Philippe Le Gras , on data.bnf.fr