Jean-Georges Pillichody was born in January 1715 in Berne. He studied law at the Academy of Lausanne under Charles Guillaume Loys de Bochat and at the University of Basel where he obtained his doctorate of law on 14 April 1734 with the dissertation De jure naturali, gentium et civili. He applied for the law chair at the Academy of Lausanne in 1740 but lost out against Béat-Philippe Vicat. He served as Justiciar of Yverdon (1734), cashier of the salt mine of Yverdon (1755), Assesseur Baillival (1771), Lieutenant de Justice (1776) and judge at the Consistory of Yverdon (1780). He was Châtelain of Baulmes since 1738, and he inherited the Seigneury of Bavois-Dessus from his uncle François-Barthélemy Pillichody whom he succeeded as Lieutenant Baillival (deputy bailiff) and Châtelain of Yverdon. He died in Lausanne on 15 May 1783.

Pillichody contributed to the popularization of natural law through his didactic presentation of Pufendorf’s manual De officio hominis et civis, translated into French by Jean Barbeyrac. Le droit naturel, d’un père à son fils, published in two volumes in 1769, is dedicated to his uncle François-Barthélemy and addressed to his son. As Pillichody explains in the preface, it was important to inculcate the truths contained in the books on the duties of man and citizen into the minds of young people and to lead them on the path of virtue. His goal was however more modest, for he only aimed to instruct his son, according to the method he believed to be most appropriate, that is, in the form of questions and answers. His main interest is in showing how natural law principles apply in the domain of civil law and of the law of nations.