Napoleon was not only a military genius, but he was also a visionary when it came to law. Its influence is reflected in all the civil codes of Europe, after its publication, and even in the codes of Latin America.

This code is among the best known and studied in the world. The Napoleonic Code was very influential in developing countries outside Europe, especially in the Middle East, that were attempting to modernize through legal reforms.The French civil code, better known as the Napoleonic code, is one of the great contributions of French law to universal law.

It was, however, the first modern legal code to be adopted with a pan-European scope and strongly influenced the law of many of the countries formed during and after the Napoleonic Wars. It was preceded by the Codex Maximilianeus bavaricus civilis, the Allgemeines Landrecht, and the West Galician Code. The Napoleonic Code was not the first legal code to be established in a European country with a civil legal system. All judges were appointed by the national government in Paris.įirst page of the 1804 original edition of the Napoleonic Code. It discarded the old right of primogeniture (where only the eldest son inherited) and required that inheritances be divided equally among all children. The Code recognized the principles of civil liberty, equality before the law (although not for women in the same sense as for men), and the secular character of the state. Praised for its clarity, the Code spread rapidly throughout Europe and the world in and marked the end of feudalism and the liberation of serfs where it took effect. With regard to family, the Code established the supremacy of the man over the wife and children, which was the general legal situation in Europe at the time. On the other hand, it prohibited judges from passing general judgments of a legislative value (more below). The code also prohibited judges from refusing justice on grounds of insufficiency of the law, thereby encouraging them to interpret the law. laws that apply to events that occurred before their introduction). Laws could be applied only if they had been duly promulgated and then published officially (including provisions for publishing delays, given the means of communication available at the time). The preliminary article of the Code established certain important provisions regarding the rule of law. Other codes were commissioned by Napoleon to codify criminal and commerce law. The development of the code was a fundamental change in the nature of the civil law legal system as it stressed clearly written and accessible law.

Napoleon participated actively in the sessions of the Council of State that revised the drafts of the new civil code.

The napoleonic code