Magistrates and Mothers, Paternity and Property in Nineteenth-Century French Courts

Abstract

In 1804, French Civil Code forbad paternity searches (recherche de paternite). Despite this prohibition of paternity suits, enterprising, or desperate mothers with the help of magistrates found ways around the law, and used tort law to sue seducers and putative fathers for damages in the civil courts. Mothers and magistrates redefined the laws governing paternity suits in ways beneficial to the women and consequentially to the children. They made paternity juridically divisible, separating men’s filiation rights to allocate property to their progeny from their contractual financial obligations to the women and their extranuptial children. These suits are part of a broader legal context that demonstrates the interaction of individuals and communities with the state. In 1912, legislators finally agreed to change the law to permit paternity suits based on specified circumstantial evidence.