French legal culture, from the Middle Ages to the present day, has had an impressive influence on legal norms and institutions that have emerged in Europe and the Americas, as well as in Asian and African countries. This volume examines the lives of twenty-seven key legal thinkers in French history, with a focus on how their Christian faith and ideals were a factor in framing the evolution of French jurisprudence. Professors Olivier Descamps and Rafael Domingo bring together this diverse group of distinguished legal scholars and historians to provide a unique comparative study of law and religion that will be of value to scholars, lawyers, and students. The collaboration among French and non-French scholars, and the diversity of international and methodological perspectives, gives this volume its own unique character and value to add to this fascinating series.

'The Cambridge series on Christian jurists, of which this volume is the latest addition, is an important and interesting project. No other works focus in the same way on lawyers, scholars, and public figures who have left a lasting imprint on the legal traditions of their respective countries. This book on French jurists is an excellent example because of the editors’ superb choice of contributors: all are legal historians whose scholarship has earned international recognition. Their contributions to this volume are all outstanding.'

Franck Roumy - University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas

'This rich and welcome collection of scholarly essays exposes and illuminates brilliantly the historic contribution of French Christian thinkers to the ideological foundations of modern law.'

Julian Rivers - University of Bristol

'It was not just medieval scholasticism and modern Protestantism that deeply influenced our understanding of the law. This book shows how the most prominent French jurists continued to build their theories on the base of Christian theology even after the ‘désenchantement du monde’ brought by the Enlightenment and the Revolution.'

Emanuele Conte - Università degli Studi Roma Tre and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris

‘… the precise and subtle analyses offered in this volume are to be warmly welcomed and commended as an important contribution to and source of information on these broader reflections on law and political theory.’

Myriam Hunter-Henin Source: Journal of Church and State