iS6 LAW 



LEROY ("La loi"), and others, demonstrate that the 

 entire region of general jurisprudence and philosophy 

 of law is being cultivated with abundant originality and 

 power for the coming generation. 



A more ample view of the scope of current French 

 work on these subjects is obtainable in vol. VII of the 

 Modern Legal Philosophy Series, entitled ''Modern 

 French Legal Philosophy" (Boston, 1916). 



Criminal Law. Criminal law is now everywhere be- 

 coming recognized as dependent on Criminal Science in 

 general (or Criminology), and thus presents many com- 

 mon problems of theory and method in all countries. 

 France's contributions to Criminology are elsewhere in 

 this volume fully treated under that head. It is enough 

 here to note that the study of Criminal Law itself is in 

 France fully in touch, both in theory and in legislative 

 spirit, with the forward movement of the last half cen- 

 tury. 



The French Penal Code of 1810 was the first radical 

 legislative response in Europe to the humanizing revolu- 

 tion of opinion led by Beccaria, Howard, and Voltaire. 

 Progress in theory during the nineteenth century was 

 followed by successive legislative reforms in all fields; 

 legislation for juvenile offenders, for example, was 

 enacted as early as 1875; f r release on parole, in 1885; 

 and for suspended sentence, in 1891. In the subjects 

 of criminal procedure, of indeterminate sentence, and of 

 revision of penal definitions generally, discussion still 

 progresses. The student will find in France as in America 

 the same general and active ferment of constructive 

 inquiry, experiment, and debate, among all interested 

 groups. The scientific and literary activity outside of 

 the Universities would make a long bibliography, and indi- 

 cates the fertility of current French thought in this field. 



