Vernon Valentine Palmer


Vernon Valentine Palmer is an American-born legal scholar, the Thomas Pickles Professor of Law at Tulane University Law School and the co-director of its Eason Weinmann Center of Comparative Law. He is a specialist in civil law and mixed jurisdiction legal studies, with a primary focus on the study of comparative international law.
Palmer received in 2012 the degree of Docteur Honoris Causa by Paris-Dauphine University and received both the Palmes Académiques and, in 2006, the Legion of Honor from the French government. In 2022 he was honored by the International Academy of Comparative Law in Paris as one of the world's "great comparatists".

Biography

Palmer was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and attended New Orleans Academy, Newman High School and graduated from Jesuit High School in 1958.
He is a graduate of Tulane University and Yale Law School, where he received a Sterling Fellowship. Palmer graduated from Pembroke College, Oxford University in 1985, where he received his Doctorate of Philosophy. His Oxford dissertation was an historical study entitled ''The Paths to Privity: The History of Third Party Beneficiary Contracts at English Law.''

Publications

He is the author of numerous legal articles and books, including his most recent book "The Lost Translators of 1808 and the Birth of Civil Law in Louisiana. In addition to being active is his local New Orleans legal and political communities, Palmer has served as a constitutional advisor and consultant to the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Republic of Madagascar.

Selected books

Through the Codes Darkly—Slave Law and Civil Law in Louisiana Mixed Jurisdictions Worldwide: The Third Legal Family Mixed Jurisdictions Compared: The Private Law of Louisiana and Scotland The Civil Law of Obligations—Louisiana Law with European Comparisons Pure Economic Loss Beyond Europe: New Horizons in Comparative Law The Louisiana Civilian Experience: Critiques of Codification in a Mixed Jurisdiction Strict Liability in Europe Pure Economic Loss in Europe Mixed Jurisdictions Worldwide: The Third Legal Family Louisiana – Microcosm of a Mixed Jurisdiction The Civil Law of Lease in Louisiana 'The Paths to Privity - The History of Third Party Beneficiary Contracts at English Law The Legal System of Lesotho
  • ''The Roman-Dutch & Sesotho Law of Delict''

Selected articles

  • Palmer, V.V., and M. Bussani
  • and John Levendis. Tul. L. Rev. 82 : 1291.
  • La. L. Rev. 56 : 363.
  • La. L. Rev. 63 : 1067.