André Marie Jean Jacques Dupin (1 February 17838 November 1865), commonly called Dupin the Elder, was a French advocate,

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of the chamber of deputies and of the Legislative Assembly. Dupin was born at Varzy, in the

Nièvre Nièvre () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019.département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

'', in France. He was educated by his father, who was a lawyer of eminence, and at an early age he became principal clerk of an attorney at Paris. On the establishment of the Académie de Legislation he entered it as pupil from Nièvre. In 1800 he was made advocate, and in 1802, when the schools of

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

were opened, he received successively the degrees of licentiate and doctor from the new faculty. He was in 1810 an unsuccessful candidate for the chair of law at Paris, and in 1811 he also failed to obtain the office of advocate-general at the

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. About this time he was added to the commission charged with the classification of the laws of the empire, and, after the interruption caused by the events of 1814 and 1815, was charged with the sole care of that great work. When he entered the chamber of deputies in 1815 he at once took an active part in the debates as a member of the Liberal Opposition, and strenuously opposed the election of the son of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

as emperor after his father's abdication. At the election after the second restoration Dupin was not reelected. He defended with great intrepidity the principal political victims of the reaction, among others, in conjunction with Pierre-Nicolas Berryer,

Marshal Ney Michel Ney, 1st Duke of Elchingen, 1st Prince of the Moskva (; 10 January 1769 – 7 December 1815), was a French military commander and Marshal of the Empire who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was one o ...

; and in October 1815 boldly published a tractate entitled ''Libre Defense des accusés''. In 1827, he was again elected a member of the chamber of deputies and in 1830 he voted the address of the 221, and on 28 February he was in the streets exhorting the citizens to resistance. At the end of 1832, he became president of the chamber, which office he held successively for eight years. On

Louis Philippe Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary War ...

's abdication in 1848 Dupin introduced the young

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into the chamber, and proposed him as king with the

duchess of Orléans Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranke ...

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

. This attempt failed, but Dupin submitted to circumstances, and, retaining the office of ''procureur-general'', his first act was to decide that justice should henceforth be rendered to the "name of the French people." In 1849, he was elected a member of the Assembly, and became president of the principal committee—that on legislation. After the ''

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

'' of 2 December 1851, he still retained his office of ''procureur-general'', and did not resign it until effect was given to the decrees confiscating the property of the

house of Orléans The 4th House of Orléans (french: Maison d'Orléans), sometimes called the House of Bourbon-Orléans (french: link=no, Maison de Bourbon-Orléans) to distinguish it, is the fourth holder of a surname previously used by several branches of the Ro ...

. In 1857, he was offered his old office by the emperor, and accepted it, explaining his acceptance in a discourse, a sentence of which may be employed to describe his whole political career. "I have always", he said, "belonged to France and never to parties." Among Dupin's works, which are numerous, may be mentioned ''Principia Juris Civilis'', 5 vols. (1806); ''Mémoires et plaidoyers de 1800 au 1ier janvier 1830'', in 20 vols.; and ''Mémoires ou souvenirs du barreau'', in 4 vols. (1855–1857). His brother, Pierre Charles François Dupin, was a mathematician.

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