Jean Carbonnier

Jean Carbonnier (1908-2003) was a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Poitiers from 1937-1955, then at the Sorbonne until 1976.

Dean Carbonnier renewed the French Civil Code, especially in the domain of Family Law (See his "Treatise on Civil Law" in five volumes). He was the inspiration for ambitious reforms in numerous demains, such as Incapacity Law (1968) and divorce (1975). He recently authored, with Pierre Catala, a proposition for the reform of inheritance law, which was taken up by the legislature in its law of 3 December 2001. French inheritance law was thereby adapted to the aspirations of the modern family, notably by its placement of the surviving spouse amongst the "ab intestat" beneficiaries.

A pluridisciplinary jurist, his writings are open to the sociology of law and the philosophy of law. He created the Laboratory for Legal Sociology at Paris II University in 1968.

He inspired combining the study of Law with that of Sociology. This synthesis allowed the usage of sociological methods of investigation, such as the opinion poll in order to measure the "demand for law" expressed by the citizens. This taking into account allowed notably the creation of divorce by mutual consent in 1975 at a time when divorce by fault was the only form offered to divorcing couples.