POTHIER, ROBERT JOSEPH, a celebrated French jurist, was born at Orleans in 1699, and received his education in his native town. At an early age he turned the whole bent of his mind towards the study of law. His ready and untiring intellect, his tenacious memory, and his upright, moral character, formed a good basis for a legal reputation. Accordingly, his Pandectæ Justinianæ, which began to be published in 1748, and which was afterwards finished in 3 vols. in 1752, introduced him to a distinguished career. He was appointed professor of law in the university of his native city in 1749, and became an earnest and popular teacher. Pothier died in 1772.
There also issued from his pen the following series of learned works:—Traité des Obligations, in 2 vols., 1761; Traité du Contrat de Vente, in 3 vols., 1762; Traité du Contrat de Consiliation de Rente, 1763; Traité du Contrat de Change et Billets de Commerce, 1763; Traité du Contrat de Louage, 1764; Traité du Contrat de Bail à rente, 1764; Traité des Cessions, 1765; Traité des Contrats de Bienfaisance, in 2 vols., 1766-67; Traité des Contrats Aléatoires, in 2 vols., 1766-67; Traité du Contrat de Mariage, in 2 vols., 1768; Traité de la Communauté, in 2 vols., 1769; Traité du Dowaire, 1770; Traité du Droit d'Habitation, des Donations, et du Don Mutuel, 1771; and Traité du Domaine de Propriété, de la Possession et de la Prescription, in 2 vols., 1772. After his death all his publications, with the exception of the Pandectæ Justinianæ, were published in a collected form in 4 vols. 4to, 1781. His posthumous works had
Potomac also been published in 8 vols. 12mo, Orleans, 1776-78. All his productions, with the exception of the Pandæa, are included in the edition of Siffrein, 20 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1820-24. The latest edition is that of Bagnet, in 10 vols. 8vo, 1845-48.