French Legal Theory

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The School of Exegesis

The École de l’exégèse dominated French legal thought throughout the nineteenth century, reflecting the confidence in codified law that followed the Napoleonic codification. The exegetical school treated the Code civil as a complete and coherent legal text requiring only careful interpretation through grammatical, logical, and historical methods. Leading exegetes such as Charles Aubry and Charles-Frédéric Rau, Charles Demolombe, and Raymond-Théodore Troplong approached the code as a self-sufficient source of law, maintaining that the judge’s function was limited to applying the will of the legislator expressed in the code. The exegetical method was characterised by its textual literalism, its respect for legislative intent, and its systematic organisation of legal doctrine according to the code’s own structure. The school’s lasting contribution was to establish the Code civil as the foundation of French legal culture, but its excessive formalism attracted increasing criticism as legal practice confronted problems the code’s drafters had not anticipated.

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French Legal Theory

The School of Exegesis