The role of the natural law in the French second colonial Empire. The example of the French colonial law in Algeria (1830-1930)

Abstract

The article examines the role played by the natural law in the History of French colonial law during the Second French colonial Empire. We analyse how the notion of the natural law, which was perceived as an instrument of emancipation during the French Revolution, became an instrument of legal acculturation in the French colonial law in Algeria. We focus the attention on the case of Algeria during the period 1830-1930, for the reason that in this colony, the French tried to apply a policy of legal assimilation that tried to modify the Muslim law and the Kabyle customary law, making them more similar to the French law. The natural law had an important role in three phenomena: the implantation of private property, the codification of the Kabyles’ customs and the Muslim Law and the reformation of the customary law in the matters of inheritance and marriage.