CODE, OF LOUISIANA
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 sucb 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 they 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 tbings, and of the different modifications of property; 3. and the third of the different modes of acquiring the property of tbings. 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.