Robert Joseph Pothier

Life

He was born and died at Orléans. He studied law to qualify for the magistracy, and was appointed Judge in 1720 of the Presidial Court of Orléans, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. He held the post for fifty-two years.

Pothier paid particular attention to the correction and co-ordination of the text of the Pandects. His Pandectae Justinianae in novum ordinem digestae (Paris and Chartres, 1748–1752) is a classic in the study of Roman law. In 1749 he was made professor of law at the University of Orleans.

He wrote many learned monographs on French law, and much of his work was incorporated almost textually in the French Code Civil. His theories on the law of contract were influential in England as well as in the United States.

Pothier devised a law limiting recovery in the case of improper performance of a contractual obligation to those damages which are foreseeable.

His wrote numerous treatises. His works have been published in collected form on several occasions, the first edited by Giffrein in 1820–1824.

Works

Coutume d'Orléans, Orléans, 1740; 1760.

Legacy

According to Janwillem Oosterhuis, "like Domat, Pothier's methodology did not consist of constructing an ideal type of Natural law but rather the application of rationalistic methods to existing law, in particular Roman law and customary law."

References

Translations

• Traité des obligations:
  • François-Xavier Martin, trans. A Treatise on Obligations, Considered in a Moral and Legal View. Newburn, N.C.: Martin & Ogden, 1802 (reprint Union, N.J.: Lawbook Exchange, 1999).
  • William David Evans, trans. A Treatise on the Law of Obligations, or Contract, 2nd American edn. Philadelphia: R. H. Small, 1839.

References

1. {{CathEncy
2. {{EB1911
3. (2017). "Cheshire, Fifoot and Furmston's Law of Contract".
4. Janwillem Oosterhuis. (2011). "Specific Performance in German, French and Dutch Law in the Nineteenth Century".