Isambert, FRANCOIS ANDRÉ

Isambert, FRANCOIS ANDRÉ, French lawyer, was born at Aunay (Eure-et-Loire) on 30th November 1792. In 1818 he began to practise as an advocate at the Court of Cassation in Paris. Here he soon made a name as a political advocate, ranging himself in opposition to the Restoration government. About this time he greatly enhanced his reputation by publishing Recueil Général des Anciennes Lois Françaises (29 vols. 1821-33), Traité du Droit Public et du Droit des Gens (5 vols. 1823), and Code Électoral et Municipal (2d ed. 1831). He also interested himself actively in the condition of the liberated slaves in the French West Indian colonies. After the July revolution of 1830 he was appointed councillor of the Court of Cassation and elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies. From this year down to 1848 Isambert belonged to the Constitutional opposition, signalling himself as a friend of liberty and an opponent of the Jesuits. The chief literary productions of the later part of his life are État Religieux de la France et de l'Europe (1843-44) and Histoire de Justinien (1856). His Pandectes Françaises, a collection of French laws, edicts, and ordinances, from 1789 onwards, was left unfinished. Isambert died at Paris on 13th April 1857.