louisiana law

[sack]

was watching cnbc squakbox and the subject was the people who ran the nursing home where forty died in the flood. seems louisiana law is not based on the same principles as the rest of the country, u.s. law is based on english law while louisiana's laws are based on napoleanic laws. anyone know the difference, your input would be appreciated, tia!

 

[kro77]

I found this explanation:

In theory, a judge in Louisiana decides a case based on her own interpretation of the code, not those of prior courts. In the other states, judges are supposed to make decisions based exclusively on previous rulings. But in practice, the two systems often work the same. Louisiana judges have the benefit of 200 years of case history, even if case law isn't used as the fundamental basis for their rulings. And judges in other states can stray from a legal precedent if they deem it grossly unjust.

So Louisana is a Civil Law System, while the rest of the country uses the English Common Law system.

I found this site explaining the difference:

http://www.ascotadvisory.com/OffshoreArticleLAW.html

But I would defer to any lawyers we have on the board, like smokelaw1 who could give a real explanation.

- K

 

[kro77]

Sorry found this which appears to be better

http://www.la-legal.com/history_louisiana_law.htm

History of Louisiana Law

 

[sack]

Sorry found this which appears to be better

http://www.la-legal.com/history_louisiana_law.htm

History of Louisiana Law

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thanks for the info, who would have thought that (a streetcar named desire) would explain louisiana law!

 

[kevpriest]

One difference is in susceptibility to corruption. I've heard many complain about the freedom that Napoleonic law puts in the hands of judges to interpret laws in whichever way suits their fancy. That lack of consistency opens up judges and administrators to corruption, since their opinions are much more valuable, and can't be compared to other opinions. Also, the Napoleonic code tends to create a larger beauracracy than common law, since the way to combat that fraud is to write a specific regulation for every scenario. That results in LOTS of regulations, and lots of administrators to publish and maintain the regulations.

 

[DocRKS]

I think the easiest thing to do for me is to fast forward to the scene where Stanley Kowalski tells his sister-in-law - Blanche DuBois about the intricacies and workings of the 'Napoleonic Code..."