LOUISIANA BAR EXAM DISTINCTIONS — ONE-PAGE CHEAT SHEET
Condensed companion to the Louisiana Bar Exam Distinctions long outline.
1. EXAM FORMAT & SYSTEM
· CIVIL-LAW state — the ONLY one (descended from Roman law via the French Code civil and Spanish Las Siete Partidas) · NOT a UBE state; no MBE/MEE/MPT given; out-of-state UBE scores NOT transferable in · own multi-day code-based essay exam over 9 separately graded subjects (Civil Code I–III, CCP, Con Law, Crim, Business/Commercial, Federal Jurisdiction, Torts) · the Civil Code is the primary source of law; no binding stare decisis — a settled case line is persuasive jurisprudence constante (C.C. art. 1: sources are legislation and custom) · cite articles by number · national common-law MBE/MEE outlines are COMPARATIVE BACKGROUND ONLY.
2. OBLIGATIONS (not Contracts)
· Obligations subsume contracts (C.C. arts. 1756 et seq.) · contract requires CAUSE, not consideration (art. 1967) → gratuitous promises are enforceable (donative intent IS the cause) · 4 requisites: capacity, consent, object, cause · vices of consent: error / fraud / duress → relatively null (confirmable); public-order violations absolutely null (not confirmable) · LESION beyond moiety — seller of an immovable who gets less than ½ fair value may rescind (buyer can pay supplement); limited to immovables/partition · specific performance more freely available than at common law; damages need "putting in default" (mise en demeure) · stipulation pour autrui = civilian 3d-party-beneficiary contract (art. 1978).
3. PRESCRIPTION (not SOL)
· Liberative (limitations analogue) vs acquisitive (adverse-possession analogue) · delictual/tort 1 yr (now 2 yrs for claims arising on/after July 1, 2024 — check the date!) · personal/contractual actions 10 yrs (art. 3499) · rent/open accounts 3 yrs (art. 3494) · interruption (suit, acknowledgment — restarts) / suspension (pauses) / contra non valentem (equitable, ≈ discovery rule) · PEREMPTION (arts. 3458–61) fixes the existence of a right — cannot be interrupted/suspended, destroys the right itself (≈ statute of repose).
4. PROPERTY (civil-law)
· Things classified as movables / immovables (not personal/real) · ownership splits into usufruct (use + fruits) and naked ownership (not life estate/remainder); reunites on usufruct's end; quasi-usufruct of consumables → owe value back · predial servitudes (dominant/servient estate; natural, legal, conventional) = easements analogue — extinguished by 10-yr nonuse; personal servitudes = usufruct/use/habitation · acquisitive prescription of immovables: 10 yrs (good faith + just title) / 30 yrs (bald possession) · co-ownership/indivision with NO default right of survivorship · mineral servitude prescribes in 10 yrs nonuse (Mineral Code).
5. COMMUNITY PROPERTY
· Legal regime of community of acquets and gains (C.C. arts. 2325 et seq.) absent a matrimonial agreement · each spouse owns a present undivided ½ · community presumption — things possessed during the regime presumed community (art. 2340); claimant must prove separate · community = effort/skill/industry property + fruits, AND fruits/revenues of SEPARATE property are COMMUNITY by default unless reserved by recorded declaration (art. 2339) · separate = pre-marriage, inheritance/donation to one spouse, personal-injury (non-earnings portion) · equal management but concurrence required to alienate/encumber community immovables and registered movables (art. 2347 → relative nullity) · reimbursement (arts. 2364–68) for enhancements/value o