Exegi Monumentum: La Belgique Judiciaire (1842-1939)

Abstract

Founded at the end of 1842, La Belgique Judiciaire lasted until 1939 and therefore was the first successful legal periodical in Belgium. Twelve years after Belgium’s independence and despite the constitutional pledge to change them as soon as possible, the Napoleonic codes were still in force. This situation was discussed in the Brussels courts where four young liberal attorneys decided to publish a new periodical providing articles in which every jurist could offer a solution for the juridical inertion. The legal practitioner also benefited from this initiative: the most important Belgian case law was published, even from the lower courts which was at that time a novelty. Next to that, interesting news about the legal world had a place in the magazine. The changes in legislation combined with a lack of renewal in the rigid editorial board and the possibility to buy alternative publications, led almost inevitably to the end of the review, a monument in the Belgian legal world.