The confusion and chaos of laws in Louisiana resulting from the transition from a Spanish colonial holding to a territory of the United States forced the Orleans Territorial Legislature to confront the problem. A resolution adopted on June 7, 1806 appointed Louis Moreau-Lislet and James Brown as the jurisconsults to compile and prepare a civil code.
The resulting work, A Digest of the Civil Laws Now in Force in the Territory of Orleans, with Alterations and Amendments Adopted to its Present Form of Government, was promulgated by the Orleans Territorial Legislature on March 31, 1808.
Though the laws in the Digest of 1808 codified Spanish colonial laws, Moreau-Lislet and Brown relied heavily upon French jurisprudence.
The Digest of 1808's enabling statute provided that "whatever in the ancient laws of this territory, or in the territorial statute, is contrary to the dispositions contained in said digest, or irreconcilable with them, is hereby abrogated."
However, the Louisiana Supreme Court's decision in Cottin v. Cottin (5 Mart (o.s.) 93, 1817) provided that the Digest could be used only as an incomplete digest of existing laws; the decision essentially revived ancient Spanish laws.
In the wake of the confusion caused by the Cottin decision, the Legislature passed a resolution on March 14, 1822 appointing Louis Moreau-Lislet, Edward Livingston, and Pierre Derbigny to revise the Digest of 1808. The jurisconsults were ordered to amend the Digest by adding to it "such of the laws as are still in force and not included therein."
On March 22, 1823, the Legislature approved the jurisconsults' plan of revision. Two days later, on March 25, by resolution the Legislature ordered the plan distributed to the Legislature and the judiciary. The next day, March 26, the Legislature ordered the Code printed as soon as it was ready.
The plan of revision, called the "Projet," included all proposed changes, additions, and omissions to the Digest. The jurisconsults indicated the reasons for the changes with citations to legal authorities supporting the changes. The Project was published in French and English.
The Legislature approved the Projet on April 12, 1824, and ordered the promulgation of the new Civil Code of the State of Louisiana. It took some time for the publisher, de St. Romes, to finish printing the Civil Code. On May 20, 1825, the Secretary of State certified the transmission of the Civil Code to the courts of the state and declared that in one month, on June 20, the Code would acquire the force of law.
The Legislature ordered the Civil Code to be published in French and English. The Louisiana Civil Code was drafted in French and translated into English afterward. However, the English version contained errors, so the French version came to be considered authoritative. Though Moreau-Lislet, Livingston, and Derbigny followed the 1804 Code Civil Français very closely to draft the 1825 Civil Code, they did retain Spanish concepts when appropriate.
The 1825 Civil Code was an all-inclusive piece of legislation meant to break with the past. Civil Code Article 3521 definitively repealed "the Spanish, Roman, and French laws" that were in force at the time of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and during the territorial era.
Subsequent editions of the 1825 Civil Code:
