Article by Vernon V. Palmer
There is a conventional view in Louisiana that the continuous Revision of the Civil Code, in progress for several decades, has repealed all the old provisions of the Civil Code of 1870 that lie within the subject areas of the Revision. Many scholars have asserted without discussion that the old provisions have been repealed. Two leading editions of the Louisiana Civil Code currently provide an appendix of the ‘repealed’ provisions of the 1870 Civil Code. Such authorities convey the impression that the Revision has made a clean break from the past and a fresh start for the future. The conventional view, of course, recognizes that we are in a period of legal transition so that the 1870 provisions will continue to have some effect. Transactions entered into before the effective dates of particular revisions will be governed by the old law. However, no one has admitted that the old law will have prospective effect; that would be impossible, for the old law has been repealed. Thus far, no one has doubted the conventional view.
About the Author
Vernon V. Palmer. Professor of Law, Tulane University; B.A., LL.B. Tulane University; LL.M. Yale University; D. Phil. Pembroke College, Oxford University.
Citation
63 Tul. L. Rev. 221 (1988)