Litvinoff, Saul

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Louisiana Law ReviewVolume 45 | Number 5May 1985Colonel Tucker, the ScholarSaul LitvinoffThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact kreed25@lsu.edu.Repository CitationSaul Litvinoff, Colonel Tucker, the Scholar, 45 La. L. Rev. (1985)Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol45/iss5/4COLONEL TUCKER, THE SCHOLARSaul Litvinoff*As a scholar, Colonel Tucker belongs in the reduced and exclusivecategory of those for whom the pursuit of knowledge is worthwhileonly as a step in the pursuit of the betterment of man. No ivory towerisolated him from the world. Not only was he a scholar in action, buta gentlemen scholar also. The image of his scholarly persona was neithermedieval nor modern. It was rather an image of the renaissance. Hisname does not conjure up the vision of someone who is identified asa scholar because he is eating a frugal meal while immersed in largeand old looking books in Spartan surroundings. On the contrary, hisname brings to mind the fleeting representation of someone who, likeErasmus, is swaddled in costly and elegant furs against the bitter Rot-terdam winter and who, while sipping the finest of wines with assurednessof an infallible expert, has let his mind wander from the pages of anexquisitely bound book into a reflection on the creative accents of humanmadness.As a man of the law Colonel Tucker had the boundless ambitionthat the law of his community should be the very best. As a scholarhe delved deeply into the past, took apart the present and even foretoldthe future in order to show that the best was there, its brilliance onlyobscured by the opaque sediment of time. To restore that brilliance heconceived a master plan. First, as a consummate craftsman endeavoringto restore a work of classical art, he carefully analyzed the raw materialof which the work was made and, for that purpose, with unsurpasseddepth, he studied its origin in Roman, French and Spanish quarries.'He then endeavored to show that the work to be preserved was trulyclassical because the artificers who fashioned it lavished upon theircreation the virtue to endure the challenge of centuries. He showed,thus, that there was room in the Civil Code of Louisiana for mineralroyalties and mineral leases even though the code was enacted longCopyright 1985, by LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW.* Boyd Professor of Law, Louisiana State University.1. See Tucker, "Source Books of the Louisiana Law: I Civil Code," 6 Tul. L. Rev.280 (1932); Tucker, Source Books of the Louisiana Law: II Code of Practice, 7 Tul. L.Rev. 82 (1933); Tucker, Source Books of the Louisiana Law: III Spanish Laws, 8 Tul.L. Rev. 396 (1934); Tucker, Substitution, Fideicomissa and Trusts in Louisiana Law: ASemantical Reappraisal, 24 La. L. Rev. 439 (1964).8LOUISIANA LA W REVIEWbefore such legal instruments were needed to aid in the creation ofwealth. 2 To his clear and systematic mind it was just a matter of goingbeyond, but always with and through the civil code. And then heexplained in all detail the technical steps required to restore the classicalwork so that the light of new times will be reflected with the same oldmajesty.' For that, he drew the general plan and with merciless veracityhe explained how painstaking the effort had to be. 4 In the words hespoke and wrote that effort required all the knowledge that could bemustered and, to be mustered it would have, first, to be accumulated.'Behind the words he spoke and between the lines he wrote he meantthat, besides knowledge, the effort required love, a love comparable tothe one he felt for that peculiar object understood by him as a mostunique crucible where the wisdom of practical problem-solvers meltstogether with the factual results of history and the perennial truth ofphilosophy. 6It was done as he said. The effort proved to be as painstaking ashe foretold. It still goes on. 7True scholars know how to project their subject unto the universeas a manner of showing the altogetherness of everything.8 As a truescholar, Colonel Tucker not only found a place for the law of Louisianain the world, but was able to bring the world to the law of Louisiana.A token of that is his finding that, in the words of Maine, the Louisiana2. See Tucker, An dela du code civil, mais par le code civil, 34 La. L. Rev. 957(1974). See also Tucker, The Code and the Common Law in Louisiana, 29 Tul. L. Rev.739 (1955).3. See Tucker, The Louisiana State law Institute, I La. L. Rev. 139 (1938); Tucker,The Role of the Law School in Law Reform, 17 La. L. Rev. 581 (1957).4. See Tucker, The Louisiana State Law Institute, I La. L. Rev. 139, 140 (1938)("Law revision and law reform are the results of careful preparation, thorough study andadequate discussion. For many years that has not been possible in Louisiana, due to thelack of time and a proper forum where the judge, lawyer and legislator could meet fora scholarly discussion of legal problems and proposed legislation.").5. See Tucker, The Role of the Law School in Law Reform, 17 La. L. Rev. 581,589 (1957):Research, which must underlie all law revision and reform, can be undertakenonly in the law schools. The horizon of legal research today is international.Scholars of the world are constantly exchanging ideas and the experience andpractices of other countries in solving legal problems are of great assistance inthe solution of similar questions at home. Comparative law is in the ascendancy,but mostly so in the law schools, although the expansion of American businessand influence all over the world is compelling increasing attention from thepracticing profession. The facilities for research, from the very nature of things,can be found only in the law schools.Id. at 589.6. See Tucker, Source Books of the Louisiana Law: I Civil Code, 6 Tul. L. Rev.280, 289-290 (1932).7. See The Twenty-Third Biennial Report of the Louisiana State Law Institute tothe Legislature of Louisiana 10 (1984).8. Heaton, A Scholar in Act - Edwin F. Gay 9 (1952).1008 [Vol. 45MEMORIAL: JOHN H. TUCKER, JR.Civil Code of 1825 is, "Of all republications of Roman law . . . theclearest, fullest, the most philosophical, and the best adapted to theexigencies of modern society." 9 Another token of that is the Colonel'sfinding that the weight of French authorities in Louisiana is not limitedto mere citations, but that, in one case at least, Coin-Delisle, Delangle,Giraud, Duranton and Marcade became active participants with theirexpert opinions.' 0 And still another token of. that is his finding that,so fascinating is the historical background of the Louisiana legal systemthat the question was warranted in one case whether the Council ofTrent was ever in effect in Louisiana.' In the recently published memoirsof Rene David, Louisiana's legal wealth is recognized and, in thatillustrious writer's emotions, strongly identified with the pleasant mem-ories of his visit to Colonel Tucker. 2A scholar's concern with. universality does not relieve him, however,of his obsession for detail, even minute. Detail may be important ornot, but even when unimportant, command of detail is an indicium ofmastery. Of that mastery the Colonel gave a token when he found thatthe Louisiana Civil Code of 1825 was printed in New Orleans by acertain Joseph Charles de Saint Romes, and that an Act of 1824 providedfor an edition of two thousand copies of which eighteen hundred shouldbe bound in parchment, and two hundred in calf. 3 Nor did it escapethe Colonel's fine scholarly eye that, in 1840, a certain Eyma undertookto do a full commentary ofthe civil code, a worthy ambition that wasnever fulfilled.'4I have respected, admired and loved Colonel Tucker. While indulging inthe privilege of his company I used to tell him that he reminded me of an-other scholar of many books who was also an idealist that carried his idealsinto action with relentless courage. He reminded me of Don Quixote. Witha passion for truth as his spear, the Colonel rode up to the ominous wind-mill and waged battle. Unlike the knight of the rueful countenance, theColonel won. That victory is the best tribute to his memory.9. Maine, Cambridge Essays 17 (1856), in 1 Sherman, Roman Law in the ModernWorld 252 (1922), cited in Tucker, Source Books of the Louisiana Law: I Civil Code,6 Tul. L. Rev. 280, 290 (1932)..10. State v. Executors of McDonough, 8 La. Ann. 171 (1853), cited in Tucker, SourceBooks of Louisiana Law: IV Constitution, Statutes, Reports and Digests, 9 Tul. L. Rev.244, 266 (1934).11. See Patton v. Cities of Philadelphia & New Orleans, I La. Ann. 98 (1846), citedin Tucker, Source Books of Louisiana Law: Ill Spanish laws, 8 Tul. L. Rev. 397, 400(1934) and Tucker, The Code and the Common Law in Louisiana, 29 Tul. L. Rev. 739,743 (1955).12. See R. David, Les avatars d'un comparatiste 200 (1983).13. See Tucker, Source Books of Louisiana Law: I Civil Code, 6 Tul. L. Rev. 280,287-292 (1931). See also Act of April 12, 1824, Louisiana Acts of 1824, p. 172.14. See Tucker, supra note 13, at 299.1985] 1009

Colonel Tucker, the Scholar

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Colonel Tucker, the Scholar

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