Everything about The Napoleonic Code totally explained
The
Napoleonic Code, or
Code Napoléon (originally called the
Code civil des Français) was the
French civil code, established under
Napoléon I. It was drafted rapidly by a commission of four eminent jurists and entered into force on
March 21,
1804. Even though the Napoleonic code wasn't the first legal code to be established in a European country with a
civil legal system — it was preceded by the
Codex Maximilianeus bavaricus civilis (
Bavaria, 1756), the
Allgemeines Landrecht (
Prussia, 1792) and the
West Galician Code, (
Galicia, then part of
Austria, 1797) — it's considered the first successful
codification and strongly influenced the law of many other countries. The Code, with its stress on clearly written and accessible law, was a major step in establishing the
rule of law. Historians have called it "one of the few documents which have influenced the whole world."
History
The Napoleonic Code was based on earlier French laws as well as
Roman law, and followed
Justinian's
Corpus Juris Civilis in dividing civil law into:
- personal status;
- property;
- acquisition of property.
Napoleon set out to reform the French legal system in accordance with the principles of the
French Revolution because the old feudal and royal laws seemed to be confusing and contradictory to the people. Before the Code, France didn't have a single set of
laws; laws depended on local customs, and often on exemptions,
privileges and special charters granted by the kings or other feudal lords. During the Revolution the vestiges of
feudalism were abolished, and the many different legal systems used in different parts of France were to be replaced by a single legal code, whose writing
Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès had been charged to lead. However, due to the turmoils of war and unrest, the situation didn't much advance until Napoleon's era ensured more stability and Cambacérès, then
Second Consul under Napoleon, could work in a more serene manner.
Developing out of the various
customs of France, notably the
Coutume de Paris, this recodification process was inspired by Justinian's codified
Roman law. The development of the Code was a fundamental change in the nature of the
civil law legal system; it made laws much clearer. The reaction to the Civil Code and other subsequent codes resulted in considerable debate within France's legislative bodies.
In
ancien régime France, law courts, known as the
Parlements, had often taken up a
legislative role by judges protesting royal decisions – to protest excesses of royal power or, in some occasions, in order to defend the privileges of the social classes to which the judges belonged. The latter was especially true in the final years before the Revolution. As a result, the French Revolution took a negative view of judges making law. This is reflected in the Napoleonic Code prohibiting judges from passing judgments exceeding the matter that's to be judged, because general rules are the domain of the law, a legislative, not judicial, power. In theory, there's thus no
case law in France. However, the courts still had to fill the gaps in the laws and regulations; thus a large body of
jurisprudence was born; while there's no rule of
stare decisis (binding precedent), the decisions by important courts have become more or less equivalent to case law.
Contents of the code
The preliminary article of the Code established certain important provisions regarding to the
rule of law. Laws could only be applied if they'd been duly promulgated, and if they'd been published officially (including provisions for publishing delays, given the means of communication available at the time); thus no secret laws were authorized. It prohibited
ex post facto laws (for example laws that apply to events that occurred before them). The code also prohibited judges from refusing justice on grounds of insufficiency of the law — therefore encouraging them to interpret the law. It, however, prohibited judges from passing general judgments of a legislative value, see above.
With regard to family, the Code established the supremacy of the husband with respect to the wife and children; this was the general legal situation in Europe at the time. It, however, allowed
divorce on relatively liberal basis compared to other European countries, including divorce by mutual consent. Following chapters discuss various aspects of property.
Other French codes of Napoleon's era
Penal Code
In 1791,
Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau had presented a new criminal code to the national Constituent Assembly. He explained that it outlawed only "true crimes" and not "phony offenses, created by superstition, feudalism, the tax system, and [royal] despotism." He didn't list the crimes "created by superstition" (meaning the
Christian religion), but these certainly included blasphemy, heresy, sacrilege, and witchcraft. All these former offenses were swiftly decriminalized.
In 1810, a new criminal code was issued under Napoleon. As with the
Penal Code of 1791, and probably owing to
Cambacérès' influence, it didn't contain provisions against religious crimes or same-sex acts.
Code of Civil Procedure
As the entire legal system was being overhauled, the Code of Civil Procedure was adopted in 1806.
Commercial Code
The Commercial Code was adopted in 1807.
Code of Criminal Instructions
In 1808, a "Code of Criminal Instruction" (
Code d'instruction criminelle) was published. This code laid out
criminal procedure. The
parlement system from before the Revolution had been guilty of much abuse; the criminal courts established by the Revolution were a complex and ineffective system, subject to many local pressures. The genesis of this code resulted in much debate. The resulting code is the basis of the modern so-called "
inquisitorial system" of criminal courts, used in France and many
civil law countries — though, of course, it has significantly changed since Napoléon's days (especially, with improvements of the right of the defense).
The French Revolution's
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen had declared that suspects were presumed to be innocent until they'd been declared to be guilty by a
court of law. A concern of Bonaparte's was the possibility of arbitrary arrest, or excessive
remand (imprisonment prior to a trial). Bonaparte remarked that care should be taken to preserve personal freedoms especially when the case was before the Imperial Court: "these courts would have a great strength, they should be prohibited from abusing this situation against weak citizen without connections." However, remand still was the normal procedure for suspects of severe crimes, such as
murder.
The possibility for justice to endorse lengthy remand periods was one reason why the Napoleonic Code was criticized for
de facto presumption of guilt, particularly in
common law countries. However, the legal proceedings certainly didn't have
de jure presumption of guilt; for instance, the juror's oath explicitly recommended that the jury didn't betray the interests of the defendants, and took attention of the means of defense.
The rules governing court proceedings, by today's standards, probably gave too much power to the prosecution; it must be said, however, that criminal justice in European countries in those days tended to side with repression. For instance, it was only in 1836 that prisoners charged with a
felony were allowed to have counsel (for example a lawyer) in
England (the
Prisoners' Counsel Act). In comparison, article 294 of the Napoleonic Code of Criminal Procedure allowed the defendant to have a
lawyer before the Court of Assizes (judging felonies), and mandated the court to appoint him a lawyer if he didn't have one (failure to do so rendered the proceedings null).
Whether or not the
assize courts, whose task was to judge severe crimes, were to operate with a
jury was a topic of considerable controversy; Bonaparte supported judgment juries, and they were finally adopted. On the other hand, Bonaparte was opposed to the
indictment jury ("
grand jury" in
common law countries) and preferred to give this task to the criminal section of the
Court of Appeal. Some special courts were created for the judgment of criminals who could
intimidate the jury.
Bonaparte also insisted that the courts judging
civil and
criminal cases should be the same, if only to give them more prestige.
Codes in other countries
Even though the Napoleonic Code was
not the first civil code and didn't represent the whole of his empire, it was one of the most influential. It was adopted in many countries occupied by the French during the
Napoleonic Wars and thus formed the basis of the private law systems also of
Italy, the
Netherlands,
Belgium,
Spain,
Portugal and their former colonies. In the German regions on the left bank of the Rhine (
Rhenish Palatinate and
Prussian
Rhine Province) the Napoleonic code was in use until the introduction of the
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch in 1900 as the first common civil code for the entire
German Empire.
Napoleonic Code was also adopted in 1864 in
Romania (with some modifications), which is still in force as of 2006 (articles 461 to 1914). Other codes with some influence in their own right were the
Swiss,
German and
Austrian ones, but even there some influence of the French code can be felt, as the Napoleonic Code is considered the first successful codification. Thus, the civil law systems of the countries of modern continental Europe, with the exception of
Russia and the
Scandinavian countries have, to different degrees, been influenced by the Napoleonic Code. (The legal systems of the
United Kingdom other than
Scotland, as well as
Ireland and the Commonwealth, are derived from the English common law rather than from Roman roots.
Scots law, though also a civil law system, is uncodified; it's strongly influenced by Romano-Dutch legal thought, and after the
Act of Union 1707 by English law.) The Code has thus been the most permanent legacy of Napoleon.
The term "Napoleonic code" is also used to refer to legal codes of other
jurisdictions that are influenced by the French Code Napoleon, especially the civil code of
Quebec, which was derived from the
Coutume de Paris, which the British continued to use in Canada following the
Treaty of Paris in 1763. Most of the laws in
Latin American countries are also heavily based in the Napoleonic Code, such as the
Chilean Civil Code and the
Puerto Rican Civil Code. Despite being surrounded by Anglo-Saxon Common Law territories,
Louisiana's civil code has kept its Roman roots and some of its aspects feature influences by the Napoleonic Code, but is based more on Roman and Spanish civil traditions. As a result, the bar exam and legal standards of practice in Louisiana are significantly different from other states, and reciprocity for lawyers from other states isn't available. The Napoleonic Code was then put to an end in 1890.
Cultural References
The Napoleonic Code is famously referred to in
Tennessee Williams' play and
Elia Kazan's
filmed version of
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Stanley Kowalski refers to the Napoleonic Code to justify his right to Blanche & Stella DuBois' family estate of which he just learned was sold. He is convinced Blanche has used the proceeds from the sale of the estate to purchase expensive personal items, which is why he searches through her things. Generally, he interprets the Code as "What's yours is mine" because he's married to Stella. It is also referred to in
James Clavell's "
Whirlwind" (p155) as an excuse for consumption of alcohol on a Muslim (Iranian) oil rig; it being French managed and therefore subject to the "Code Napoleon". In the novel, and subsequent film,
Maurice there's mention that nations with the Napoleonic code didn't make homosexual relations between consenting adults in private a crime. It is also mentioned in episode 408 of
The West Wing, "
Process Stories".
Further Information
Get more info on 'Napoleonic Code'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://napoleonic_code.totallyexplained.com">Napoleonic code Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
