French lawyer, author, and administrator.

Practiced law briefly in Paris. Returned to Haiti, where he researched his best-known legal work, Lois et constitutions des colonies françaises de l’Amérique sous le Vent, de 1550 à 1785 (6 vols., 1784-90). President of the electors of Paris (1789); deputy for Martinique (1790). Spent several years in the United States in the 1790s. Upon return to Paris, he served as historian of the navy and a member of the Council of State (1800). Published numerous political and scholarly works and translations.

Born in Martinique.