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Alfred Daviel (12 June 1800 – 3 March 1856) was a French lawyer and politician who was appointed Minister of Justice in the last cabinet of the French Second Republic.

Early years

Alfred Daviel came from a respected Norman bourgeois family. He was born on 3 March 1800 in Évreux, son of François-Denis-Hyacinthe Daviel, advocate, and Hortense Delaroche. His great-uncle was Jacques Daviel (1696-1762), the famous oculist and pioneer of cataract operations. Alfred Daviel studied law in Paris, then became an advocate at the court of Rouen in 1821. He was granted a medal worth 300 francs by the Rouen Academy in 1823 for a thesis on the administration of the dukes of Normandy. He was elected president of the bar in Rouen.

Daviel mixed with liberal and masonic circles in Rouen. After the July Revolution of 1830 he was a strong opponent to the restoration, and was decorated for this by the government of King Louis-Philippe. On 3 September 1830 Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure, the Minister of Justice, appointed him first Advocate General of Rouen. That year he also became a member of the Rouen municipal council and of the Seine-Inférieure general council. Opposed to the reactionary position of Moyne, appointed procureur général in 1832, Daviel resigned and went back to the bar in Rouen. He defended political dissidents and writers such as Armand Carrel. He was again elected president of the Rouen bar in 1843 and 1845.

Second Republic and Second Empire

Daviel was a strong supporter of the Bonaparte regime. The government of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte appointed him Prosecutor General of Rouen in February 1850. On 1 November 1851 Daviel was made keeper of the seals and Minister of Justice in place of Eugène Corbin, who had refused the appointment. He held office uneventfully until the coup of 2 December 1851, when he returned to his post in Rouen. He was admitted to the Legion of Honour in 1850, made an officer in 1852 and commander in 1853. On 19 June 1854 he was made a senator. In 1854 he was made first honorary president of the Imperial Court of Rouen. Alfred Daviel died in Paris on 12 June 1856.

Works

Daviel was the author of several works including:

• Examen de l'ordonnance du 20 novembre 1822, concernant l'Ordre des avocats (1822)
• Traité de la législation et de la pratique des cours d'eau (1824)
• Lettres (adressées à Me Isambert) sur la liberté individuelle dans l'ancien droit normand (1827)
• De la résistance passive (1829)
• Recherches sur l'origine de l'ancienne coutume de Normandie (1834)
• Commentaire de la loi du 29 avril 1845 sur les irrigations (1845)

References

Citations

1. C. d'. E.-A. 1903, p. 164.
2. ^ Vinuesa 2004.
3. Dezobry & Bachelet 1876, p. 2911.
4. Galisset 1852, p. 881.
5. Jacques Daviel, oculiste du roi Louis XV.

Sources

• C. d'. E.-A. (1903). Dictionnaire des familles françaises anciennes ou notables à la fin du XIXe siècle. Vol. 3 CUN-DES. Charles Herissey. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
• Dezobry, Charles; Bachelet, Theodore (1876). Dictionnaire général de biographie et d'histoire, de mythologie, de géographie ancienne et moderne comparée, des antiquités et des institutions grecques, romaines, françaises, et étrangères ... Delagrave.
• Galisset, Ch. M. (1852). Corps du droit français ou recueil complet des lois, décrets, ordonnances, sénatusconsultes, règlements ... publiés depuis 1789 jusqu'à nos jours. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
• "Jacques Daviel, oculiste du roi Louis XV". Mairie de La Barre-en-Ouche. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
• Vinuesa, Juilien (2004). "Le parquet général de Rouen sous la monarchie de Juillet (1830-1848)". Université de Rouen. Retrieved 15 January 2014.

External links

• Alfred Daviel on data.bnf.fr
• Works by or about Alfred Daviel at the Internet Archive

v t e Last cabinet of the French Second Republic (26 October 1851 – 2 December 1851)
Under the Presidency of Louis Napoleon
Justice	Eugène Corbin Alfred Daviel
Foreign Affairs	Louis Félix Étienne, marquis de Turgot
Interior and Beaux-Arts	René de Thorigny Charles de Morny, Duke of Morny
Finance	Antoine Blondel François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca
War	Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud
Navy and Colonies	Hippolyte Fortoul
Public Works	Théobald de Lacrosse
Agriculture and Commerce	François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca Noël Lefebvre-Duruflé
Education and Religious Affairs	Charles Giraud

• 1800 births
• 1856 deaths
• People from Évreux
• Politicians from Normandy
• Bonapartists
• Ministers of justice of France
• French senators of the Second Empire
• 19th-century French lawyers