Léon Duguit (1859–1928) was a leading French

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

of public law (''droit public''). After a stint at Caen from 1882 to 1886, he was appointed to a chair of

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fe ...

at the

University of Bordeaux The University of Bordeaux (French: ''Université de Bordeaux'') is a Lists of universities in France, public university based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in Southern France, southwestern France. It has several campuses in the cities and towns of Bor ...

in 1892, where one of his colleagues was

Émile Durkheim David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...

. Duguit's novel objectivist theory of public law, developed in amicable rivalry with his colleague Maurice Hauriou of Toulouse, was to have a lasting effect on the development of these parts of law. In Duguit's opinion, the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

was not a mythical Sovereign inherently superior to all its subjects, or even a particularly powerful

legal person In law, a legal person is any person or 'thing' (less ambiguously, any legal entity) that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason for ...

, but merely a group of people engaged in

public service A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

, the activity constituting and legitimising the state. Although critical of notions such as

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

, democracy, legal personhood and even

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

to the extent it is not legitimised by a social purpose, he distinguished himself from Marxists by emphasizing the function of the economy for the development of the state.

Works

* ''L'État, le droit objectif et la loi positive''. Extracted as "Theory of Objective Law Anterior to the State" in ''Modern French Legal Philosophy'', trans. Mrs Franklin W. Scott and Joseph P. Chamberlain (New York, Kelly, 1916; South Hackensack NJ, Rothman, 1968), pp. 235-344 * ''L'État les gouvernants et les agents'' *
Souveraineté et liberté
' * ''Les transformations du droit public'' * ''Traité de droit constitutionnel'' * * The text translated is not identified. * Translated by Margaret Grandgent and Ralph W. Gifford.

References

* * ;Notes 1859 births 1928 deaths People from Libourne University of Bordeaux alumni Academic staff of the University of Bordeaux French international relations scholars French jurists {{France-law-bio-stub