Civil law → , a rule that emanates from the sovereign to obtain the common good of his subjects.

The collection or body of laws which he makes in conformity with this end is what we call civil law → , and the art by means of which the civil laws are established, explained when they contain some obscurity, or applied appropriately to the acts of citizens, is called civil jurisprudence .

To provide in a stable manner for the happiness of men and their tranquility, fixed and determined laws needed to be established, which, illuminated by human reason, should tend to improve and usefully modify natural law .

Therefore, the civil laws serve: (1) To make known the natural laws themselves more particularly. (2) To give them a new degree of force, by the penalties which the sovereign inflicts on those who disdain and violate them. (3) To explain what may be obscure in the maxims of natural law. (4) To modify in various manners the use of the rights which each individual naturally possesses. (5) To determine the formalities which must be followed and the precautions that must be taken to make the various engagements which men contract amongst themselves effective and valid, and in what manner each must pursue his right before the tribunals.

Thus good civil laws are nothing other than natural laws , themselves improved and modified by sovereign authority in a way suitable to the state of the society he governs and its advantages.

We can distinguish two sorts of civil laws . The first are so defined with respect to their authority alone, and the others with respect to their origin.

We place in the first class all natural laws that serve as rules in the civil tribunals, and which are moreover confirmed by a new sanction of the sovereign: such are all laws that determine which are the crimes that must be punished.

We place in the second class the arbitrary laws whose principle is the sovereign’s will, or which have to do with things that concern the particular good of the state, although indifferent in themselves: such are laws that regulate the formalities necessary for contracts, testaments, the manner of proceeding in justice , etc. But although these rules are arbitrary, they must always tend to the good of the state and of individuals.

All the force of civil laws consists in their justice and their authority, which are two characteristics essential to their nature, and without which they could not produce a genuine obligation.

The authority of civil laws consists in the force given them by the power of him who, being vested with the legislative power, is entitled to make those laws , and in the maxims of right reason, which would have us obey.

The justice of civil laws depends on their relation to the order of the society whose rules they are, and their appropriateness to the particular utility which happens to establish them, as the times and places require it.

The power of the sovereign constitutes the authority of these laws , and his beneficence does not allow him to make unjust ones.

If there were any that reversed the fundamental principles of natural laws and the duties they impose, the subjects would be entitled and even obliged to refuse to obey laws of that nature.

It is absolutely appropriate for subjects to have cognizance of the sovereign’s laws ; he must consequently publish his laws , establish them firmly, and proclaim them. It is further absolutely essential that they be written in the clearest manner, and in the language of the country, as all the laws of ancient peoples have been. For how should they be observed, if they are not known, and if they are not understood? In early times, before the invention of writing, they were composed in verse which was learned by heart and chanted so as to be remembered. Among the Athenians, they were engraved on copper sheets mounted in public places. Among the Romans, children learned the laws of the twelve tables by heart. [1]

When civil laws are accompanied by the conditions we have just listed, they undeniably have the force to oblige subjects to observe them, not only from fear of the punishments attached to their violation, but also by principle of conscience, and by virtue of a maxim of natural law itself that commands us to obey the sovereign in everything one can do without crime.

No one can fail to know the author of civil laws , who is established either by an express consent of the citizens, or by a tacit consent when one submits to his authority in whatever manner that may be.

On the other hand, the sovereign in the establishment of civil laws must give his principal attention to assuring that they have the following qualities, which are of the greatest importance to the public weal.

First, to be just, fair, consistent with natural law , clear, unambiguous and non-contradictory, useful, necessary, attuned to the nature and principle of the government that is established, or that it is the intention to establish, to the state, and to the genius of the people for which they are made; relative to the lie of the land, to the climate, the territory, to its situation, its size, the inhabitants’ type of life, their inclinations, their wealth, their number, their trade, their life style, and their customs. [2]

Second, of such a nature as can be readily observed; as few in number and the least extensive possible; sufficient for concluding the most commonly practiced business among the citizens; expeditious in the formalities and procedures of justice; and tempered by a just severity proportionate to what the public weal requires.

Let us add that the laws require not being changed unnecessarily; that the sovereign must not grant dispensations from his laws without the strongest reasons; that they must support one another as much as is possible. Finally, that the prince must subject himself to them and show the example, like Alfred, [3] whom one of the great men of England calls the marvel and ornament of all time . That admirable prince, after drawing up a body of civil laws for his people, full of wisdom and gentleness, thought, say the historians, it would be vain to try to oblige his subjects to observe them if the judges, magistrates, and he himself did not give the first example.

It is not enough for the civil laws of sovereigns to include the qualities we have just mentioned if their style is not on the same level.

Civil laws essentially and necessarily require a precise and concise style; the laws of the twelve tables are a model of this. (1) A simple style; direct expression is always better understood than careful expression. (2) Without subtleties, because they are not an art of logic. (3) Without ornaments or comparison drawn from reality to the figure, or from the figure to reality. (4) Without details of exceptions, limitations, or modifications, except when necessity so requires, because when the law presumes, it gives judges a fixed rule, and because in matters of presumption, that of the law is better than that of the man, whose arbitrary judgments the law avoids. (5) Without artifice, because being established for the good of human beings, or to punish their errors, they must be full of candor. (6) Without conflict with the same people’s political laws , because it is still for the same society that they are made. (7) Finally, without retroactive effect, unless they concern things illicit in themselves, as Cicero says.

Such should be the civil laws of states, and it is in all these conditions combined that their excellence consists. To envisage them subsequently on all their sides, relative to each other, from one people to the next, in all times and all places, is to form a broad vision of the spirit of law , on which we have an immortal book made to enlighten the nations and show the plan of public felicity.

1. The Twelve Tables, copper tablets that encoded Roman law in the fifth century BCE.

2. Many of these qualifications reflect the influence on political thought of Montesquieu’s recent treatise L’Esprit des lois (The Spirit of Law), published in 1748. The last sentence of this article below is an explicit celebration of that same work. Montesquieu had died in 1755.

3. Alfred the Great was king of West Saxony (871–886) and of the Anglo-Saxons (886–899).