Faculty of Law, Criminal Sciences and Public Administration

The embryo of legal training began to take shape at the end of the sixteenth century at the Lausanne academy, with the first courses given by the French professor De Prez in 1598 and 1600, and the weekly case law courses given by Jean Steck in 1611 and 1616. At that time, there was no such thing as a career as a lawyer or magistrate: no education was required to gain access to these positions, which were very often reserved for the Bernese. This fact may partly explain the lack of interest in the law in the Pays de Vaud and its slow take-off.

The first chair of law and history at the Academy was created in 1708 by Bailli Jean-Jacques Sinner, whose aim was to meet the needs of the administration of justice. The Lausanne City Council accepted the professorship but insisted that the lectures on the customs of the Canton of Vaud and Lausanne be given in French. The Bernese agreed, but to avoid any risk of insubordination, demanded that Roman law be taught in Latin[2]. In fact, the language of instruction posed a problem in the eighteenth century, which may have slowed down the development of the study of law. In the Middle Ages, the language of the courts and notaries was Latin, but when the Bernese arrived in 1536, they prescribed the use of French for notarial deeds. However, Latin remained the official language of the Académie.

In this regard, Gabriel Olivier (1653-1715), a magistrate, stated that the choice of language should be based on the usefulness of the teaching: natural and common law in Latin and positive law in French[3]. In his view, Latin was an obstacle for young Waldensians, who often had insufficient knowledge of it. Despite the compromise made when the Chair of Law was created, French has not yet taken hold.

After many péries, the règlement de l’Académie of 1788 sealed the glorious future of français by allowing professors the free choice of the language of their teaching. The triumph of français thus paved the way for the future entry of positive law à l’Académie[4].

The chair of law at the Académie was inaugurated in 1708. However, it was not until 1711 that it was awarded to Professor Jean Barbeyrac (1674-1744), a French refugee. The latter taught courses in Roman law in Latin and those in natural law[5] and history in French.

Natural law is based on «l’ensemble des règles de conduite de l’homme en société procédant soit de sa nature d’être animal, soit de sa nature d’être raisonnable, soit de sa spécificité ontologique»[6]. From this perspective, the Pays de Vaud has played a key role in popularising and disseminating the doctrines of modern natural law (jusnaturalism). He was a bridge-builder between German culture and the French culture of Rousseau and Montesquieu. It was Barbeyrac who provided the French translations of Samuel Pufendorf, Le Droit de la Nature et des Gens, and Grotius, and who developed the themes of the state of nature and the social contract. The state is seen as a legal person whose will is the result of all the individual wills. The theorists of natural law oppose the arbitrary power of the Prince, which constitutes the first seeds of the future French Révolution.

It is therefore legitimate to question the choice of linking law and history in the same chair. History is full of lessons and enables us to understand the origins of things, to understand man, his behaviour, his abilities and what he is made for. It is therefore useful, if not essential, for understanding legal science. Indeed, natural law is based on knowledge of man and what is appropriate à his nature and réciprochement through the étude of law, we develop a critical spirit in history.

However, a lack of interest, little intellectual curiosity and low course attendance prompted, among other things, Barbeyrac to leave his post in 1717 for Groningen (NL). The lack of students was said to be due to an insufficient knowledge of Latin and, as mentioned above, legal studies were not compulsory for admission to the notarial profession or the bar.

Despite the lack of success of the chair of law and history, in May 1717 the Council of Berne decided to maintain it with the appointment of the young Charles-Guillaume Loys de Bochat (1695-1754). The 22-year-old professor taught natural and civil law, history and statistics. Together with his friend Gabriel Seigneux de Correvon, both former students of Barbeyrac, they drew up the first project to transform the Academy into a real university and to make it the university centre of the European Protestant world, where courses would be taught in French. However, this ambitious idea ended in failure[7].

Loys de Bochat’s working conditions were precarious, not least because he had a severe shortage of students. In 1740, he left his teaching post to take up the post of lieutenant baillival of Lausanne. This year marked a turning point in the development of law in the Pays de Vaud. The question of whether to maintain the chair of law and history was once again raised: the answer was favourable, as it enabled young Vauders to study law locally and attracted students from abroad, which was always a source of profit for the city. The novelty came in the form of a new regulation on 12 September 1740, which created its own chair of law. 8] The creation of this unique branch of law made it possible to promote legal studies and to establish them, little by little, as indispensable to the professions of lawyer and magistrate. In other words, a process was put in place to enhance the teaching of legal sciences, in particular by registering students enrolled in the aforementioned course. Loys de Bochat's successor, Béat-Philippe Vicat, would teach jus naturae et gentium,[9] Justinian's Institutes and Roman law.

However, it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that the legal spirit and knowledge of positive law took off within the academy. Until then, legal science remained centred on natural law and historical culture[10].

The law of 1806 promoted the legal sciences with the institution of a second chair of law in addition to that of natural law: Roman civil law and Vaud customary law. It was finally the law of 21 December 1837 that created the Law Faculty of the Lausanne Academy. It comprises four chairs: civil law, criminal law and legal philosophy, public and international law, and Roman law and legal history. In addition, students have the opportunity to take free courses such as Charles Hoffmann's courses in legal medicine or Antoine Cherbuliez's courses in political economy. The Faculty continued to grow and diversify. From 1869 onwards, two additional chairs were created: comparative law and political economy. In 1870, Léon Walras was appointed to the chair of political economy and formulated the mathematical models of economic equilibrium under conditions of perfect competition, known as Walras's equations.

The nineteenth century saw the exponential development of law in Lausanne, as witnessed by the establishment of the seat of the Tribunal fédéral à Lausanne in 1874. At the same time, a fifth chair of law, that of Roman law, was created. Law was firmly anchored in the academy and was doing well.

When the University of Lausanne was established in 1890, the Faculty had seven professorships. It wanted to increase the number of courses it offered and to make Lausanne the Swiss university centre for law. It also broke with Lausanne tradition by doing away with natural law in favour of a pure doctrine of law.

Léon Walras took an interest in social problems and made note of them in his teaching: these were the timid beginnings of sociology. His successor, Vilfredo Pareto, took this approach a step further and introduced the idea of homo oeconomicus, acting according to the "ophthalmic limit"[11]. He devoted certain courses to social systems, equality and the redistribution of wealth under the still vague title of social and political sciences. Pareto's work, combined with that of his predecessor Walras, gave the University an international reputation[12]. One speaks of «L’Ecole de Lausanne» to sign the current of néoclassical economists animated; by the disciples of Walras and Pareto.

The Faculty of Law was successively supplemented in 1909 by the Institut de Police Scientifique, then in 1911 by the Ecole des Sciences Sociales et Politiques (SSP) and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC). The Faculté de droit was therefore the mother of two future faculties: the Faculté des sciences sociales et politiques (1977) and the Faculté des HEC (1978).

As the years went by, the Faculty of Law expanded and diversified. At the end of the 1970s, various centres were created, such as the Centre de droit français in 1977, which a year later became the Institut de droit français (IDF) or the Centre de recherche sur le droit de la responsabilit&e; civile et des assurances (IRAL) created in 1973 and which became the Institut du droit des assurances et du travail (IDAT) in June 2009.

Like its predecessors, political economy has always been linked to the teaching of law and is essential for any lawyer. The Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires Walras-Pareto, founded in 1990, still bears witness to this closeness today.

In 2010, following the implementation of the Bologna agreements, the Faculty has 7 sections: private law, corporate law, tort and insurance law, public law, comparative, European and international law, notarial law and the Walras-Pareto centre for the history of economic thought. Added to this are the various institutes and centres that have more or less important links with the Faculty of Law, such as the Ecole des sciences criminelles (ESC), the Institut suisse de droit comparé (ISDC) or the Fondation Edouard Fleuret.

Matilde Correia - UNIRIS 2014

[1] Danielle Anex-Cabanis, «Des leçons de droit à la Faculté», in. De l’Académie à l’Université de Lausanne: 1537-1987, 450 ans d’histoire, Lausanne: Musée historique de l’Ancien-Evêch;, 1987, p. 91.

[2] Idem.

[3] Jean-François Poudret (dir.), L’enseignement du droit à l’Académie de Lausanne aux XVIIIème et XIXème siècles, Lausanne: Université de Lausanne, 1987. p. 23.

[4] Ibid, pp. 21-27. Positive law refers to the body of legal rules in force in a state or community.

[5] Positive law refers to the body of legal rules in force in a state or community.

[6] Positive law refers to the body of legal rules in force in a state or community.

[5] Natural law refers to the body of norms that take into consideration the nature of man and his purpose in the world.

[6] http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/f/F8934-1-1.php (accessed 9 July 2014).

[7] Danielle Anex-Cabanis, «Des leçons de droit à la Faculté», in op. cit. p. 92.

[8] Ibid, pp. 171-172.

[9] That is, natural law and the law of nations.

[10] Jean-François Poudret (ed.), op. cit. p. 5.

[11] Consisting of the subjective utility derived from the value of a good. It is the use value of this good, which has nothing to do with its utility (objective value). Thus, for the Incas, gold had great value, but no utility.

[12] André Delessert, L’Université au défi. Une histoire sociale de l’Université de Lausanne, Lausanne: Payot, 1991, pp. 140-144.