A student at the École Normale Supérieure (class of 1902), he received a licentiate in law and agrégation in grammar.
In 1917, supported by the Fondation Thiers, he received his doctorate in letters with a dissertation entitled "Researches on the development of legal and moral thought in Greece".
For a long time he led a modest academic career, devoted to teaching Greek at the University of Algiers.
In 1948, at the age of 66, he went to the seminary of legal sociology at the École Pratique des Hautes Études to teach ancient Greek anthropology.
From 1949 to 1961 he was editor of the journal L'Année sociologique, to which he also contributed under the heading "Legal and moral sociology".