CODE, OF LOUISIANA. In 1822, Peter Derbigny, Edward Livingston, and Moreau
Lislet, were selected by the legislature to revise and amend the civil code,
and to add to it such laws still in force as were not included therein. They
were authorized to add a system of commercial law, and a code of practice.
The code the prepared having been adopted, was promulgated in 1824, under
the title of the "Civil Code of the State of Louisiana."
2. The code is based on the Code Napoleon, with proper and judicious
modifications, suitable for the state of Louisiana. It is composed of three
books: 1. the first treats of persons; 2. the second of things, and of the
different modifications of property; 3. and the third of the different modes
of acquiring the property of things. It contains 3522 articles, numbered
from the beginning, for the convenience of reference.
3. This code, it is said, contains many inaccurate definitions. The
legislature modified and changed many of the provisions relating to the
positive legislation, but adopted the definitions and abstract doctrines of
the code without material alterations. From this circumstance, as well as
from the inherent difficulty of the subject, the positive provisions of the
code are often at variance with the theoretical part, which was intended to
elucidate them. 13 L. R. 237.
4. This code went into operation on the 20th day of May,. 1825. 11 L.
R. 60. It is in both the French and English languages; and in construing it,
it is a rule that when the expressions used in the French text of the code
are more comprehensive than those used in English, or vice versa, the more
enlarged sense will be taken, as thus full effect will be given to both
clauses. 2 N. S. 582.