Jean Carbonnier

Jean Carbonnier (1908–2003) was one of the most important French jurists of the 20th century.

He was a civil law specialist and a private law professor.

Jean Carbonnier was the son of Fernand Carbonnier and Dany Daniel.

He married Madeleine Hugues.

His Protestant beliefs influenced his way of thinking and his work.

Although Jean Carbonnier published theological and historical articles about Protestantism, he still supported secularity.

Jean Cabonnier studied at the Faculty of Law at the University of Bordeaux where he obtained his doctorate in 1932 and private law agrégation in 1937.

He was a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Poitiers from 1937 to 1955, teaching French civil law.

He became dean in 1950.

At this time, he published his Treatise on Civil Law (Droit civil) in 1955, which has been republished several times since then.

Jean Carbonnier became President of L'Année Sociologique in 1964, and worked for the sociology journal during fifteen years.

He also created and started heading the Laboratory for Legal Sociology (Laboratoire de sociologie juridique) at Panthéon-Assas University in 1968 - in order to produce data that would help law making.

On the international level, Jean Carbonnier supported the creation of the Research Committee on Sociology of Law and participated in the inauguration of the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Oñati, with Renato Treves.

Jean Carbonnier was particularly well known in Canada and Italy.

As a professor, he also often referenced to foreign legal systems, such as Germany or Italy.

Apart from his academic career, Jean Carbonnier was also a writer: his book ''Les incertitudes du jeune Saxon.

In Sociologie juridique (1968), Jean Carbonnier explained his theories about the links between law and society.

This work represents his most famous one on the international level, especially thanks to the concepts he developed, as well as his account of the relationship between jurisprudence and social sciences.

In Flexible droit (1969), the core study was "non-law" ("non-droit"), considered as the essence of social life.

For Jean Carbonnier, when there is no law, other systems of social regulations will work instead – for instance, religion, morality, customs, friendships, or habits.

This part of the book also made Jean Carbonnier an internationally recognized jurist.

Afterwards, Jean Carbonnier taught at the Paris Law Faculty (replaced with Panthéon-Assas University in 1970) until 1976.

Une autofiction de Jean Carbonnier'' was published posthumously, in 2011.

This fiction shows that Jean Carbonnier was not only a theorist, but also an author of literature.

This element can be perceived while reading his theoretical works about law, since he always explained his thoughts with an elegant and precise way of writing.

Les incertitudes du jeune Saxon represents at the same time a fiction (sort of Bildungsroman) and a reflection about law and history.

This work is also linked with the story of his own family and tastes.

Jean Carbonnier's vision of law was based on his own philosophy, which includes Protestantism, realism, skepticism, and empiricism – always with open-mindedness.

He was at the same time a theorist, an author, and a lawmaker.

That is why he was – and still is – often called "jurislateur," which can be translated as "jurislator" in English.

His works are open to the sociology of law and the philosophy of law, cleverly linking legal, political, and social sciences.

The author observed society in order to understand it.

He also considered legal phenomena as social facts.

At the same time a jurist and a sociologist, Jean Carbonnier played an important role in adapting law to society's traditions and customs.

He considered law as an artifact, and was interested in every system of norms.

In Flexible droit, he explains how law is changeable, uncertain – and "flexible."

Jean Carbonnier inspired, constituted, and conceptualized the combination of the study of law with that of sociology (legal sociology) – at a time when it was not popular among French jurists.

He practiced "sociology without rigor," as the subtitle of his work Flexible droit shows.

Indeed, Jean Carbonnier did not like "rigid" law.

Since our society is multicultural, law must adapt to its transformations – for instance, concerning family.