GENY, FRANCOIS

born Dec. 17, 1861, Baccarat, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Fr. died Dec. 16, 1959, Nancy French law professor who originated the libre recherche scientifique (free scientific research) movement in jurisprudence. His advocacy of this principle liberalized the interpretation of codified law in France and thus helped to increase popular confidence in the judiciary. His approach also influenced legal philosophy in other countries. A university law teacher, Gny was appointed in 1901 professor of civil law and, in 1919, dean of the faculty of law at the University of Nancy; this office he occupied until 1925. In 1930 he became corresponding member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. Gny emphasized the element of judicial discretion in making law. He attacked the traditional assumption underlying the interpretation of the Napoleonic Code (French civil code)that the code had solved all legal problems, even those that could not have been foreseen. In his view, courts are free to make their own rules when preexisting written or unwritten law fails to cover the situation. According to his philosophy, the law results from applying juristic techniques, or constructions (construits), to the given data (donns) of the social sciences.