SYSTEM OF LAWS. Louisiana is governed by the civil law, unlike the other states of the Union (ex cept, to a slight extent, the states that formed part of the Louisiana Purchase). The first body of civil laws was adopted in 1808, and was substantially the same as the Code Napoleon, with some modifications derived from the Spanish law. It was styled the "Digest of the Civil Law," and has been afterwards frequently revised and enlarged to suit the numer ous statutory changes in the law, and since 1825 has become known as the "Civil Code of Louisiana." There is no criminal offence in this state but such as is provided for by statute ; the law does not de fine crimes, but prescribes their punishment by ref erence to their name ; for definitions we turn to the common law of England. The civil code lays doWn the general leading principles of evidence, and the courts refer to treatises on that branch of the law the development of those principles In their ap plication to particular cases, as they arise in prac tice. Most of these rules have been borrowed from the English law, as having a more solid foundation in reason and common sense. The usages of trade
sanctioned by courts of different countries at dif ferent times, or the lex ntercatoria, also exist en tirely distinct and independent of the civil code, and are recognized and duly enforced. When Louisiana was ceded to the United States, some of the law yers from the old states spared no efforts to intro duce the laws with which they were familiar, and of which they sought to avail themselves, rather than undergo the toil of learning a new system in a for eign language. But of those conversant with the common law, the most eminent did not favor its introduction as a general system to the exclusion of the civil law. Succession of Franklin, 7 La. Ann. 395. The laws of the state on public and personal rights, criminal and commercial matters were as similated to those of the other states ; but In rela tion to real property and its tenures, the common law or English equity system has never had a place in Louisiana.