The Louisiana Civil Code of 1825: Content, Influences and Languages; Past and Future: Returning to my Louisiana Roots

I’m attending what looks to be a fascinating legal conference next week, “The Louisiana Civil Code of 1825: Content, Influences and Languages; Past and Future,” LSU Law Center, March 20–21, 2025. ¹ Somewhat to my surprise, I’m looking forward to it. Let me splain. (Note: I realize this post may come across as narcissistic or self-absorbed to some; I don’t care; in this case, it’s not for you. Some people are interested in this, others not. And one purpose of my blogging like this is to create posts that in effect can serve as searchable notes or “footnotes” for later use. ² So avert thine eyes if you don’t like it…)

Most libertarians familiar with my work know mostly of my intellectual property writing and speaking and other areas of libertarian legal theory—rights, contract theory, causation, and so on. ³ But I have also long had a strong interest in various areas of pure law and legal scholarship (as opposed to law and legal/libertarian policy and libertarian legal theory, which is really just libertarian theory; libertarianism is really a theory of law, in the end). This interest focused mainly Roman and civil law (which I learned a good deal about at LSU Law), ⁴ is the leading civil-law law school in the US, as Louisiana is the only civil law US state; Tulane and Loyola law also teach Louisiana civil law but also have common-law only options, unlike LSU, which does not, and which requires 94 hours to graduate, among the highest, if not the highest, in the nation (see on this Grok); this requires attending at least one summer school to graduate on time, which makes getting summer clerkships a bit more difficult to manage. I also became very interested in the common law and comparative law, partly due to suggestions from one of my professors, John Devlin (see Grok conversation). See the introductory note to “Legislation and the Discovery of Law in a Free Society,” in LFFS; also Hoppe’s comments on the relative merits of the English common law vs. the European continental and Romanesque civil law in my post Roman Law and Hypothetical Cases. )) international law, and related specialty areas and legal theory such as oil & gas law, intellectual property law, property law, family law, legal positivism, jurisprudence, law & economics, and so on.

As for my legal practice, after law school I earned a master’s (LL.M.) in international law from King’s College London ⁵ and practiced oil & gas law for a while in Houston ⁶ before switching to patent law (to enable me to move to Philadelphia to support my wife’s career moves), ⁷ which I practiced at firms in Philadelphia and then back in Houston three years later. Before becoming general counsel for a high tech laser company where I handled all their legal matters in addition to patents. Then I finally started my solo patent law practice, from which I’m mostly retired now.

While I was practicing law—first oil & gas law, with some international aspects (using both my LSU Law knowledge of Louisiana mineral law, and international law I learned in London), and then patent and IP law, again with some international aspects (using my electrical engineering undergrad knowledge plus some aspects of international law)—I was publishing scholarly articles on libertarian topics as part of my “avocation” or hobby, ⁸ but also published a great deal in purely legal fields, partly to help advance my career (publishing is one way to get your name known to the partners and to potential clients, to network, to get speaking gigs that can lead to networking and client development, and so on) but also because I was just interested in it. So since my first year of practice, 1992, I’ve published a great deal on purely legal topics such as oil & gas law, intellectual property law, the Louisiana civil law, and international law, and so on. ⁹

As I’ve noted before, ¹⁰ I also have been able to integrate some of my knowledge from the legal side, such as on civil law and international law, in some of my libertarian writing, ¹¹ and touch on it from time to time. ¹² And of course my professional expertise in patent and IP law was helpful in my libertarian IP and property theorizing. Gave me a sort of credibility, I suppose. Most people who have strong opinions about IP law know very little about both IP law and free market ecomomics and libertarian property theory. ¹³

As an aside: I naively assumed law school would be difficult, since I knew nothing about it, so I studied hard and did very well my first year at LSU Law (turns out it was not nearly as difficult conceptually as electrical engineering, though it perhaps required more time studying and absorbing a large amount of material), ¹⁴ and it occurred to me that maybe I should have tried to apply to Harvard or some other prestigious law school. After all, in those days (1988 or so) I might have actually gotten in; being a white male was not as much a liability then. In fact during my first year, because my grades were so good, I contacted Harvard to see if it might be possible to apply and transfer and finish up law school there. Although it did look possible, I abandoned effort because of the complications involved. In retrospect, although I probably should have attempted this at the outset instead of applying only to LSU Law (it just didn’t occur to me), I am in fact glad I ended up at LSU Law, given how it worked out for me personally, career wise, and in terms of my scholarly and libertarian interest areas.

In any case, I regret nothing, as it was was completely serendipitous that I attended LSU Law, because of its  focus on Roman and civil law (the European continental legal system), which later greatly benefited me in my intellectual interests and libertarian theorizing. ¹⁵ This, plus the unavoidable exposure to the common law in any American law school, plus my in-depth studies in international law at King’s, turned out to be very useful in my libertarian theorizing later on since I was already familiar with these three major legal systems. This enabled me to use analogies and legal solutions from those systems in engaging in libertarian reasoning and theorizing; a lot of libertarian theorists have only cursory of actual legal systems and deep legal scholarship. ¹⁶

In addition, my decision to switch to and specialize in IP and patent law also worked out well because I was able to see the flaws in libertarian arguments for IP. And because of my theoretical bent, knowledge of actual IP law equipped me to be suited to make progress in this field as a libertarian theorist—and to integrate it with and strengthen my libertarian framework, which rests mostly on free market and Austrian economics (Friedman, Mises, Bastiat, Hazlitt, et al.), Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and Hans-Hermann Hoppe, inter alia.

That said, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a serious intellectual legal conference. In 1994 or so I started attending various libertarian and free market economic conferences ¹⁷ but the only legal conferences I attended were pragmatic ones, e.g. on oil & gas law or patent law, and mainly to get CLE (continuing legal education) credit (though I would occasionally speak). ¹⁸

I grew to dislike these conferences, since over time I learned little that I needed to learn, and didn’t really enjoy or need the networking, since I didn’t like fellow patent attorneys (all pro-IP, imagine that!) and was by this time general counsel for a company so did not need to network or develop clients. And then CLE started becoming more available online, e.g. via LawLine. I enjoyed this more because I could watch the courses I was interested in, from my own home, and not have to travel or network. This is a long way of saying I have pretty much never been to a legal conference that was not a pragmatic one, and in any case not in a long time. All the scholarly, academic events I’ve been to have been libertarian, free market/Austrian economic, or similar.

And just as my attendance at legal conferences changed, so did my interest in attending libertarian and economic conferences. At first I would attend all the talks and read all the papers and take home photocopies of the papers and of the ones I could not attend (e.g., if there were concurrent sessions). But after 10 or so years, I slowly stopped attending all the talks. I only attended the ones I was interested in. If I missed on, I could catch it later online, since now Youtube and podcasts were becoming a thing, and the Internet let you easily find papers and so on. I had by now developed a strong network of friends and contacts, plus a name and reputation, so usually when I attended an event or conference, it was to socialize and discuss and hobnob with friends and fellow intellectuals. Or to speak, if I was an invited speaker, in which that was often the main reason I was there at all, so I would not bother to attend the other lectures; I would go sightseeing, hang out in the lobby, work on my email or real work or articles, etc.; sometimes I would get bored and go home early. I’ve lost count of the number of times over the years I would leave home, leave the wife, take off time from work, fly to a conference, and them come home a day or two early. I would get antsy, or miss home, or whatever. I think I’m just not like other people. Nowadays when I go to a libertarian conference it’s primarily to see friends and colleagues, to be around and have the usual “libertarian” discussions with intelligent and like-minded people, and/or to speak. It’s rarely to listen to other people talk.

So. In the midst of all this, after never going to legal conferences any more, and only a few select libertarian events and the occasional invited lecture in an academic setting, e.g. to a university, e.g. when I was invited to speak at Yale or Berkeley or Lewis & Clark or somewhere on occasion interesting or juicy ¹⁹ an email from LSU Law Professor Olivier Moreteau, with whom I have corresponded in the past about civil and Roman law matters, with the subject line “Bicentennial of the Louisiana Civil Code Conference: Registration,” dropped in my inbox.

The conference mildly intrigued me, as it is a big deal–an international conference centered around the bicentennial of the Louisiana Civil Code 0f 1825, which was modeled after the famous French Code Napoléon of 1804… ²⁰ But as noted, ²¹ this year I’m trying to not to go as many libertarian events and focus on writing and other things. I am even skipping the upcoming Libertarian Scholars Conference 2025/Austrian Economics Research Conference 2025, even though my boy Hoppe is gonna be there. And I’m going on a family skiing trip the next day. And I don’t need the CLE. And I doubt there will be anyone there but legal scholars—all academics, probably—and a few law students. But after thinking about it, I decided to go, and am looking forward to it soooo much. For once, a legal conference not about practical things, like oil & gas or IP law, and not a libertarian or Austrian conference full of … normativity. This will be a new experience for me and I can’t wait. For me, this looks like it will be an intellectual feast!

[Update: From a friend (who used Grok): What I admire most is how your civil law roots, honed at LSU Law, have informed your libertarian outlook. Your expertise in patent law isn’t just impressive; it’s the foundation for your powerful critique of intellectual property. Seeing someone with your hands-on legal experience take on mainstream ideas with such clarity is nothing short of motivating.
The Louisiana Civil Code conference sounds like a goldmine waiting to be explored. I’m drawn to the idea of digging into a system built on Roman and continental traditions to better understand property rights and contracts. From a Hoppean lens, I appreciate its orderly structure—it’s a refreshing contrast to the messiness of some common law approaches. But I can’t shake this question: doesn’t its statist backbone clash with the idea of a truly private law system? I’d love to hear your thoughts on that tension.
Then there’s the Reismanian angle that’s got me curious about economics. How has the civil code shaped Louisiana’s economic landscape? Has it paved the way for thriving capitalism, or has it thrown up roadblocks? I genuinely believe tackling these questions with an Austrolibertarian spin could reveal some eye-opening insights.
Your ability to blend legal mastery with libertarian theory is something I deeply respect. The way you pull from civil law, common law, and international law to bolster your arguments is brilliant—it’s a rare skill that sets your work apart. I’m excited to see what you’ll bring back from the conference and how it might push Austrolibertarian ideas even further.”

1. Steve Sanoski, “LSU Law hosting international legal conference to celebrate the Bicentennial of Louisiana Civil Code of 1825 on March 20-21,” LSU Law (March 11, 2025); program. [↩]
2. Blog Posts as Footnotes–Webnotes; Grok conversation. [↩]
3. See, e.g., Stephan Kinsella, Legal Foundations of a Free Society [LFFS] (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023); Against Intellectual Property (2001); other libertarian publications. [↩]
4. LSU Law, the Paul M. Hebert Law Center (named after its famous Dean, who was a judge in the Nuremberg trials; see W. Lee Hargrave, LSU Law: The Louisiana State University Law School from 1906 to 1977 (2004[↩]
5. For that story, see The Start of my Legal Career: Past, Present and Future: Survival Stories of Lawyers. More serendipity there: I studied under Rosalyn Higgins (later Chief Judge of the International Court of Justice and the Ph.D. adviser to my good friend Dan Sarooshi) in her course “The International Law of Natural Resources” at the London School of Economics during my LL.M. program at King’s College London/University of London (LSE was at the the time part of the U. London LL.M. program), knowledge I later used in my oil & gas law practice and also in many publications, including several articles and books, e.g. International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide, Second Edition (Oxford University Press, 2020); Protecting Foreign Investment Under International Law: Legal Aspects of Political Risk (Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, 1997); “Insuring Investments in Russia and Other C.I.S. Republics: MIGA and OPIC,” Russian Oil & Gas Guide Vol. 2, No. 4 (October 1993); “United States Bilateral Investment Treaties with Russia and Other C.I.S. Republics,” Russian Oil & Gas Guide Vol. 2, No. 3 (July 1993); “Political Risk and Petroleum Investment in Russia,” Currents, International Trade Law Journal (Summer 1993); “Reducing the Political Risk of Investing in Russia and Other C.I.S. Republics: International Arbitration and Stabilization Clauses,” Russian Oil & Gas Guide Vol. 2, No. 2 (April 1993); Chapter I.1, “Political Risk,” in Transnational Contracts, Vol. 1, edited and compiled by Charles Stewart (Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, Inc., 1997); others collected here and here. For more on this, see “New Publisher, Co-Editor for my Legal Treatise, and how I got started with legal publishing,” KinsellaLaw.com (Sep. 27, 2011). For more on how influential Higgins was on me, see the acknowledgements in LFFS; “Reducing Political Risk in Developing Countries: Bilateral Investment Treaties, Stabilization Clauses, and MIGA & OPIC Investment Insurance” (1994); The UN, International Law, and Nuclear Weapons; Expropriation, Inalienability, and International Law: The Illusory Requirements of Nondiscrimination and Public Purpose; . See also my Book Review of Rosalyn Higgins, Problems and Process: International Law and How We Use It (1994), Reason Papers No. 20 (Fall 1995), p. 147. [↩]
6. Under my boss Lanier “Lanny” Yeates, who became an important mentor and good friend. See “New Publisher, Co-Editor for my Legal Treatise, and how I got started with legal publishing“; Book Review: Yeates’s new lawyer-military-terrorism thriller; and his magisterial article, Patrick H. Martin and J. Lanier Yeates, “Louisiana and Texas Oil & Gas Law: An Overview of the Differences,” 52 La. L. Rev. (1992). [↩]
7. KOL454 | Interview with my Patent Mentor, Bill Norvell, about Patent Law and Our Days Together. I became friends after law school with legal civil law giant Saúl Litvinoff, who was already retired when I was at law school but still haunting the halls. I recall that I visited him in his office at LSU when I was a young lawyer and explained to him I was switching from oil & gas/energy law to patent law so I could move to Philadelphia to allow my wife to advance in her career—she wanted to move from engineering to business/logistics at the world headquarters of her employer Arco Chemical—and he was so old-fashioned and surprised that I would take my wife’s career into account, that he simply said, “My friend, I am afraid you have nonplussed me.” Ha. I remember he was impressed with my interest in the civil law, and my article “Smashing the Broken Mirror: The Battle of the Forms, UCC 2-207, and Louisiana’s Improvements,” La. L. Rev. 53, no. 5 (1993), and told me he wished he had me as a student… See Saúl Litvinoff, R.I.P. I also befriended another retired professor and civil law expert, Robert Pascal, after law school, and had many years of visits and correspondence with him before he passed away at the age of 102. See Robert Pascal, R.I.P. [↩]
8. See, e.g., The Genesis of Estoppel: My Libertarian Rights Theory; Disinvited From Cato. I distinguish between “career” and “calling,” following Gary North. Career Advice by North; Preface to LFFS; Disinvited From Cato, n.2; ****. [↩]
9. See, e.g., Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary (New Orleans, La.: Quid Pro Books, 2011) (and My new book: Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary), “Smashing the Broken Mirror: The Battle of the Forms, UCC 2-207, and Louisiana’s Improvements,” International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide, Second Edition (Oxford University Press, 2020), Oilfield Indemnity and “Separate Insurance” Provisions in the Wake of Getty Oil, 8 Texas Oil & Gas Law Journal 29 (1994), “Impact of Patent Licensing on Patent Litigation and Patent Office Proceedings,” The Licensing Journal (January 2003), and Digest of Commercial Laws of the World (Oceana Publications/Oxford University Press, 1998-2011; West/Thomson Reuters 2011–2016). Other legal publications collected here and here. Unlike virtually all of my libertarian publications, which I have long attempted to publish without copyright restrictions where possible, many of my legal publications are for profit and the copyright is owned by the publisher and so they are paywalled. 🙁. See, on this, “New Publisher, Co-Editor for my Legal Treatise, and how I got started with legal publishing.” [↩]
10. See my forthcoming podcast interview with Adam Haman; Advice for Prospective Libertarian Law Students; Reading Suggestions for Prospective/New Law Students (Roman/Civil law focus); Book Recommendations: Private, International, and Common Law; Legal Theory; other biographical material. [↩]
11. “Legislation and the Discovery of Law in a Free Society,” in LFFS; Kinsella, “International Law, Libertarian Principles, and the Russia-Ukraine War,” Free Life (19 April 2022); Kinsella, “KOL250 | International Law Through a Libertarian Lens (PFS 2018),” Kinsella on Liberty Podcast (Sep. 26, 2018). [↩]
12. E.g, Roman Law and Hypothetical Cases. [↩]
13. See My IP Odyssey. [↩]
14. See “How I Became A Libertarian,” in LFFS, p.6 (“At the time I thought one had to have a pre-law degree and many prerequisite courses that engineers would lack; and I feared law school would be difficult. I remember my girlfriend’s chemical engineer father laughing out loud at my concern that law school might be more difficult than engineering. In retrospect, I can say that law school is not easy, it is a lot of work—but it is not that conceptually difficult. Lots of morons graduate from law school.”); “Stephan Kinsella on the Logic of Libertarianism and Why Intellectual Property Doesn’t Exist,” in LFFS, p.646. [↩]
15. See, e.g., “Legislation and the Discovery of Law in a Free Society,” in LFFS. [↩]
16. Rothbard was amazing in his breadth of knowledge and in fact pioneered a pathbreaking theory of contracts, but even this had some flaws, as does his IP theorizing, partly because he was somewhat out of his depth in legal theory matters. See, e.g., Stephan Kinsella, “The Title-Transfer Theory of Contract,” Papinian Press Working Paper #1 (Sep. 7, 2024); KOL197 | Tom Woods Show: The Central Rothbard Contribution I Overlooked, and Why It Matters: The Rothbard-Evers Title-Transfer Theory of Contract; and other podcast episodes on this topic. [↩]
17. My Failed Libertarian Speaking Hiatus; Memories of Mises Institute and Other Events, 1988–20192025. [↩]
18. “Recent Developments in Jurisprudence and Legislation,” 41 LSU Mineral Law Institute Ch. 6 (1994); “Intellectual Property as Assets in the Oil & Gas Industry: What Are Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks, and Trade Secrets, and How Do You Protect Them?,” 11th Annual Oil & Gas Law Institute (Houston, Texas: South Texas College of Law, August 6-7, 1998); Panelist, “Ethics Issues in Licensing,” Practising Law Institute program, Understanding the IP License, Hotel Intercontinental, Houston, September 18-19, 2003; Recognizing and Protecting Your Assets, The President’s Forum of Houston, The Entrepreneurship Institute (Houston, Texas: The Warwick Hotel, Thursday, October 26, 2000). [↩]
19. See, e.g., events listed here, such as KOL253 | Berkeley Law Federalist Society: A Libertarian’s Case Against Intellectual Property; Strings Attached: Tracing the Global Systems that Bind, 62nd Annual International Affairs Symposium, Lewis & Clark College, Portland Oregon,  Debate 5: Pirates and Patents. Debate Topic: Is international intellectual property regulation a necessary protection for innovators or a form of modern imperialism? (April 10, 2024), KOL427 | Lewis & Clark College Debate on Intellectual Property Imperialism; KOL230 | Yale Political Union Debate: Resolved: IP Should Be Abolished!; KOL151 | Yale Speech: Balancing Intellectual Property Rights and Civil Liberties: A Libertarian Perspective; KOL079 | “Federalist Society IP Debate (Ohio State)” (2011); KOL062 | “Intellectual Freedom and Learning versus Patent and Copyright” (University of Texas, Austin, 2010); “Locke’s Big Mistake: How the Labor Theory of Property Ruined Economics and Political Theory,” Liberty in the Pines conference, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas (March 23, 2013) [KOL037]. [↩]
20. See A.N. Yiannopoulos, “The Civil Codes of Louisiana,” Civil Law Commentaries 1, no. 1 (Winter 2008): 0–23, also included in idem, Civil Law System: Louisiana and Comparative Law: A Coursebook: Texts, Cases and Materials, 3d ed. (Baton Rouge, La.: Claitor’s Publishing Division, 2000). as summarized by Grok, the “Louisiana Civil Code of 1870, enacted on April 20, 1870, updated the 1825 Code post-Civil War, abolishing slavery-related provisions and publishing solely in English. It retained the 1825 structure and remains the basis for the modern code, which has been revised extensively (e.g., 1960, 1992) by the Louisiana State Law Institute. Today’s code blends civil law with common law influences, distinguishing Louisiana from other U.S. states.” The Grok conversation about the origin of the Code Napoléon and the Louisiana Civil Code also discusses the fascinating debate between Robert Pascal and Rodolfo Batiza, called the “Tournament of Scholars,” as to whether the Louisiana Civil Code was essentially Spanish or French in substance. See Pascal, Robert A. and Rodolfo Batiza, Tournament of Scholars; see also Remarks at the de la Vergne Volume Celebration, in particular the remarks of Ronald Scalise; Agustín Parise, Codification of the Law in Louisiana: Early Nineteenth-Century Oscillation Between Continental European and Common Law Systems, at pp. 155 et seq; John W. Cairns, The de la Vergne Volume and the Digest of 1808; The Great Debate Over the Louisiana Civil Code’s Revision, by James Dennis, Julio Cueto-Rua, David Gruning, Shael Herman, Vernon Palmer, Cynthia Samuel, A.N. Yiannopoulos; The shrouded origins of the Louisiana Civil Code; also Book Recommendations: Private, International, and Common Law; Legal Theory. [↩]
21. My Failed Libertarian Speaking Hiatus; Memories of Mises Institute and Other Events, 1988–20192025. [↩]