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François Denis Tronchet (March 23, 1726 - March 10, 1806), was a French jurist.
Born in Paris, he became an avocat at the parlement of Paris, and gained a great reputation in a consultative capacity. In 1789 he was elected deputy to the states-general. In the Constituent Assembly he made himself especially conspicuous by his efforts to obtain the rejection of the jurisdiction of the jury in civil cases. He was chosen by King Louis XVI as counsel for the defence at his trial, and performed this difficult and dangerous task with ability and courage.
During the period of the French Directory he was deputy at the Council of the Ancients, where he unsuccessfully opposed the resolution that judges be nominated by the executive directory. Under the Consulate he was president of the tribunal of cassation, and collaborated in preparing the final scheme for the civil code. He had a marked influence on the code, and succeeded in introducing common law principles in spite of the opposition of his colleagues, who were deeply imbued with Roman law. Following his death, he became the first senator of the empire to be buried in the Pantheon.
See François de Neufchateau, Discours sur Tronchet (Paris, undated); Coqueret, Essai sur Tronchet (Caen, 1867).
Reference
- This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.fr:François Denis Tronchet