Abstract

This paper aims to highlight how the trial of Louis XVI expresses a complete inversion of the legal principles of Old Christian France, where the authority of the absolute King submits to superior customary and divine laws, against the Revolution, which makes the ‘general will’ a God allowing for unrestrained legal positivism. After recalling how the assassination of the King allowed the vicious circle of terror, the trial of Marie-Antoinette and the revolutionary trials, we propose an explanation of the legal principles that can lead to this kind of totalitarianism. To do so, we present some cases from 19th century Japan, which, when compared with the revolutionary trials and the pre-revolutionary Christian world, provide a key to understanding: the hierarchy of positive, natural and divine laws greatly explains how such and such a legal system can allow or not the justification of mass crimes or totalitarianism.