- In CODE CRIMINEL the very last Treatise on Criminal Law from the Ancien Régime, Serpillon, Lieutenant-General for Criminal Affairs in the Présidial d'Autun, emphatically defends proposals for radical reform in what is all too often archaic practice. The chapters devoted to the Inquisition Sessions he had to preside, in which he describes the repulsion they provoked, are very moving and extremely rare in legal literature. His coverage of prison life also provides clear evidence of a gradual change and progress in people's attitude towards the incarceration of their fellow man.