Les enjeux juridiques du terme de « conférence » (III, 8)

The aim of this article is to specify the technical legal sense of the verb conférer that Montaigne uses especially in III, 8. Montaigne’s practice is viewed in relation with the project, developed by the lawyers of that time, to conférer the law sources in order to gradually develop a unified juridical standard. The originality of the Essais, a place of registration of perplexities rather than an illusory dissolution of differences, appears even more clearly.