Les fictions juridiques et leurs avatars humanistes

Abstract

Starting from a remark by Montaigne on “legitimate fictions”, this article considers the history of fictiones legis under the various features initially conferred to them by the Roman jurisprudence, in the transformations later inflicted on them by medieval commentators, lastly in the reception within the humanistic law. Centering notably on Alciat, then Dadin and Hauteserres, the article discriminates between “fiction” and “simulation”, and ultimately ends on a parallel with the plasma of the Second sophistics, a kind of philosophical equivalent of the space between truth and falsehood in which the fictiones legis are situated.

Keywords

• fiction
• truth
• simulation
• law
• jurisprudence
• Alciat