In very recent years there has been a renewed interest in the legal history of Louisiana in the Territorial Period and the early years of statehood. There has been a complete rethinking of the sources of the first Louisiana Civil Code, the Digest of the Civil Laws of the Territory of Orleans, with renewed reflection on some related documents, such as the de la Vergne volume, and other source material.
One important product of this developing research is the new book by Professor Vernon Palmer of the Tulane Law School, The Lost Translators of 1808 and the Birth of Civil Law in Louisiana, published by the University of Georgia Press in its Southern Legal History Series, ISBN 9780820358338.
There is not the scope here for a full review of this important and enlightening work. Professor Palmer explores the lives of the translators, which illuminates much of the tensions and culture of the early territorial period, before reflecting on their work in a fascinating account of what they did.
All interested in translation, codification, and early Louisiana should read this handsomely produced monograph.
