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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Victor Schoelcher, abolitionniste et républicain : approche juridique et politique de l'oeuvre d'un fondateur de la République

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The aim of this judicial and political analysis is to reveal Victor Schoelcher's decisive influence in the fight for equal rights and for the republic, in the French mainland as well as in its colonies. His well known fight against slavery was just a part of his humanist defense of the republican principles : Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Schoelcher truly was a founder of the republic, taking part in the barricade insurrections against the 1851 coup and fighting against any kind of slavery or absolutism. His work addressed many aspects of our society, among which : - Slavery and the colonies (legal status of slaves, emancipated slaves and of the colonies) - Rights and liberties of men and citizens (he fought for human dignity and the abolition of the death penalty, advocated reform of the penitentiary system, respect for of civil and political rights, as well as rights for women and children, protection of the most deprived, and development of public assistance and education) - Republican institutions (he discussed the concepts of sovereignty and law, the function of the state and the church ; and political, administrative, judicial, military and local organization). This judicial study (analytical and not biographical) of his writings and his political acts (proposals of laws, work in the legislative assemblies commissions) not only demonstrates Schoelcher's decisive influence on French law, but it's contradictions as well. He fought for a democratic republic, social and secular. He advocated an application of the common law for the 4 old colonies (Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guyana and Réunion Island) - this is the departmentalization principle - but not for the other colonies (Algeria and India in particular). In these instances, his assimilationism found its limits : Schoelcher never contested the native status and was opposed to full citizenship for the renonçants as he judged that cultural assimilation had to occur before any legal assimilation.