Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target (, 17 December 1733 – 9 September 1806) was a French lawyer and politician.

Biography

Born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, Target was the son of a lawyer, and was himself a lawyer to the

Parlement of Paris The Parliament of Paris (french: Parlement de Paris) was the oldest ''parlement'' in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. It was fixed in Paris by Philip IV of France in 1302. The Parliament of Paris would hold sessions inside the ...

. He acquired a great reputation as a lawyer, less by practice in the courts than in a consultative capacity, and served the

ancien régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for ...

as member of a committee to revise the civil and criminal laws of the kingdom. He strenuously opposed the "'' parlement Maupeou''", devised by Chancellor Maupeou to replace the old judiciary bodies in 1771, refusing to plead before it, an act that earned him the sobriquet of the "Virgin of the palace". He was counsel for Louis René Edouard, cardinal de Rohan in the "

affair of the diamond necklace The Affair of the Diamond Necklace (, "Affair of the Queen's Necklace") was an incident from 1784 to 1785 at the court of King Louis XVI of France that involved his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The Queen's reputation, already tarnished by gossi ...

". In 1785, he was elected to the Académie française. He contributed to the development of the Edict of Tolerance signed at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

in 1787.

French Revolution

In 1789, he was returned as one of the deputies of the

Third Estate The estates of the realm, or three estates, were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the Middle Ages to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed and ...

in Paris to the Estates-General, and he was instrumental in writing up the

cahiers de doléances The Cahiers de doléances (or simply Cahiers as they were often known) were the lists of grievances drawn up by each of the three Estates in France, between January and April 1789, the year in which the French Revolution began. Their compilation w ...

of Paris. He went on to support revolutionary measures such as the union of the orders, the suspensive veto, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the last of which he was one of the principal authors. He was one of many deputies named to the Constitutional Committee in September 1789, to replace those conservative members who resigned. He presided over the National Constituent Assembly 18 January - 2 February 1790. His excessive obesity, which made him the butt of the Royalist jokes, prevented his practising at the bar for some years before 1789. When

invited him to undertake his defence, he excused himself on this ground. In 1792, he published some

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

al observations in extenuation of the king's actions, which, in the circumstances of the time, would have taken some courage.

From Thermidor to Empire

Target took no part in public affairs during the Reign of Terror. Under the Directory he was made a member of the

Institut de France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute ...

in 1796 and of the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...

in 1798. He lived to collaborate in the earlier stages of the new criminal code.

Works

Among his writings may be mentioned a paper on the grain trade (1776) and a ''Mémoire sur l'état des Protestants en France'' (1787), in which he pleaded for the restoration of civil rights to Protestants.

References

;Attribution The ''Britannica'' gives the following references: * Victor du Bled, "Les avocats et l'Académie française", in the ''Grand Revue'' (vol. ii. 1899). * H. Moulin, ''Le Palais a l'Académie: Target et son fauteuil'' (Paris, 1884). * P. Boulloche, ''Un avocat au 18^ième siècle'' (Paris, 1893). {{DEFAULTSORT:Target, Gui-Jean-Baptiste 1733 births 1807 deaths Members of the Académie Française People of the French Revolution Court of Cassation (France) judges Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 19th-century French judges