French lawyer A.-N. Ludo and his project for the reform of naval justice at the end of the Directorship (1798–1799)

The study is devoted to the project of reforming the naval justice system in France, proposed in the report by lawyer A.-N. Liudo to the Council of Five Hundred in 1798. The text of the new Naval Criminal Code based on this report was discussed multiple times but never became an approved law. This topic is new to the field and has not yet been adequately addressed in the literature. The main goal of the research is to identify the characteristics of the naval judicial organization in France according to Liudo's project. The article presents the French legislation on naval courts at the beginning of the Revolution as a precursor to the reform project, analyzes the provisions of Liudo's project on naval justice and the process of discussing the project in parliament. The subject of the study is the reform of the judicial system of the French Navy in 1798–1799. The object of the study is the legislative activity of parliament in the field of naval judicial law in France during the era of the Great Revolution. Authentic sources from the Revolutionary and First Empire periods (legislative acts, reports and opinions of deputies, newspaper publications) were used for the research. Methods of specific-historical and comparative-historical analysis, as well as content analysis and comparative legal analysis of documentary sources, were employed. As a result, the following observations were made. Liudo's project reflected the complex naval organization and hierarchy of naval and civil service personnel. It created separate jurisdictions for different categories of accused individuals and provided guarantees of equal (proportional) justice depending on the rank and position of the person, adhering to the ancient principle of peer court. Liudo's project proposed the establishment of new judicial bodies in the navy – revision councils – creating possibilities for overturning unlawful judicial decisions. It also confirmed the long-overdue refusal of the French Navy to use jurors. The implementation of Liudo's project in practice would have allowed for a flexible mechanism of justice under the challenging conditions of naval life. However, due to the opposition of certain deputies and the prolonged discussion of the project, as well as the dissolution of parliament following the coup in November 1799, it never became effective in France.