Article by Jeanne Louise Carriere
A.N. Yiannopoulos's work in civil-code revision includes a reworking of Book I, Title 1 of the Louisiana Civil Code that does not just replace outmoded terminology, but rids the Louisiana Civil Code of an outmoded idea. Earlier versions of that Title, derived from Roman and French sources, allocated legal rights and responsibilities on a categorical basis. The categories had been reduced with the changing times; slavery, illegitimacy, deafness and other markers of difference no longer could be employed as an excuse for differential treatment under the law. Despite these changes, however, Title I had retained the concept that personal characteristics, without regard to competence, could per se circumscribe the exercise of legal rights. The revision spearheaded by Yiannopoulos in 1987 reconceptualized Title 1 from a statement of inequality to one of equality: Legal personality replaced status as its focus, and it was provided with a coherent scheme for determining its attachment.
About the Author
Jeanne Louise Carriere. John Minor Wisdom Professor of Civil Law Emerita, Tulane University School of Law. B.A. 1970, St. Mary's Dominican College; M.A. 1972, UCLA; Ph.D. 1975, UCLA; J.D. 1986, Tulane Law School.
Citation
73 Tul. L. Rev. 1263 (1999)