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RIDA 194 | 10-2002

Doctrine

Natural law, french droit d'auteur and american copyright

NGOMBE, Yvon Laurier

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A comparative analysis of the history of French droit d’auteur and American copyright from the 18th century reveals a common reference to natural law on both sides of the Atlantic. Both the laws of the new independent States of America and the French statutes invoke the author’s natural right to enjoy the fruits of his labour. Nevertheless, this common reference to the theory of natural law, which may reflect the influence of English precedents, did not prevent the emergence of differences between the two systems. Though more marked from the 19th century onwards, these differences were already quite visible even in the 18th century. A number of reasons, primarily of a socio-economic nature, explain this unequal impact of natural law in France and the United States. These differences concerned, inter alia, the importance attached to the public interest. The natural law invoked in the earliest texts is an element that could usefully nurture current and future discussions on the approximation of the two systems and on the international law of literary and artistic property.