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CODE NAPOLEON

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 635 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CODE See also:NAPOLEON , the first code of the See also:French See also:civil See also:law, known at first as the Code civil See also:des See also:Francois, was promulgated in its entirety by a law of the 3oth Ventose in the See also:year XII. (31st of See also:March 1804). On the 3rd of See also:September 1807 it received the See also:official name of Code Napoleon, although the See also:part that Napoleon took in framing it was not very important. A law of 1818 restored to it its former name, but a See also:decree of the 27th of March 1852 re-established the See also:title of Code Napoleon. Since the 4th of September 1870 the See also:laws have quoted it only under the name of the Code Civil. Never has a See also:work of legislation been more See also:national in the exact sense of the word. Desired for centuries by the See also:France of the ancien regime, and demanded by the cahiers of 1789, this " code of civil laws See also:common to the whole See also:realm " was promised by the constitution of 1791. However, the two first assemblies of the Revolution were able to prepare only a few fragments of it. The preparation of a coherent See also:plan began with the See also:Convention. The ancien regime had collected and adjusted some of the material. There was, on the one See also:hand, a vast juridical literature which by eliminating See also:differences of detail, had disengaged from the various French " customs " the essential part which they had in common, under the name of " common customary law "; on the other hand, the See also:Roman law current in France had in like manner undergone a See also:process of simplification in numerous See also:works, the See also:chief of which was that of See also:Domat; while certain parts had already been codified in the Grandes Ordonnances, which were the work of d'See also:Aguesseau. This See also:legacy from the past, which it was desired to preserve within See also:reason, had to be combined and blended with the laws of the Revolution, which had wrought See also:radical reforms in the conditions affecting the individual, the See also:tenure of real See also:property, the See also:order of See also:inheritance and the See also:system of mortgages.

See also:

Cambaceres, as the representative of a See also:commission of the Convention, brought forward two successive schemes for the Code Civil. As a member of one of the See also:councils, he See also:drew up a third under the See also:Directory, and these projected forms came in turn nearer and nearer to what was to be the ultimate See also:form of the code. So See also:great was the See also:interest centred in this work, that the law of the 19th See also:Brumaire, year VIII., which, in ratification of the previous See also:day's coup d'etat nominated provisional consuls and two legislative commissions, gave injunctions to the latter to draw up a See also:scheme for the Code Civil. This was done in part by one of the members, Jacqueminot, and finally under the constitution of the year VIII., the completion of the work was taken in hand. The legislative machinery established by this constitution, defective as it was in other respects, was eminently suited for this task. Indeed, all projected laws emanated from the See also:government and were prepared by the newly established See also:council of See also:state, which was so well recruited that it easily furnished qualified men, mostly veterans of the revolution, to prepare the final scheme. The council of state naturally possessed in its legislative See also:section and its See also:general See also:assembly bodies both competent and sufficiently limited to discuss the texts efficiently. The See also:corps legislatif had not the right of See also:amendment, so could not disturb the See also:harmony of the scheme. It was in the discussions of the general assembly of the council of state that Napoleon took part, in 97 cases out of 102 in the capacity of chairman, but, interesting as his observations occasionally are, he cannot be considered as a serious collaborator in this great work. Those responsible for the scheme have in the See also:main been very successful in their work; they have generally succeeded in fusing the two elements which they had to See also:deal with, namely See also:ancient French law, and that of the Revolution. The point in which their work is comparatively weak is the system of See also:hypothec (q.v.), because they did not succeed in steering a See also:middle course between two opposite systems, and the law of the 23rd of March 1855 (sur la transcription en matiere hypothecaire) was necessary to make See also:good the deficiency. A See also:fault frequently found with the Code Civil is that its general divisions show a lack of See also:logic and method, but the See also:division is practically that of the Institutes of Justinian, and is about as good as any other: persons, things, inheritance, contracts and obligations, and finally, in See also:place of actions, which have no importance for French law except from the point of view of See also:procedure, privileges and hypothecs, as in the ancient coutumes of France, and See also:prescription.

It is, mutatis mutandis, practically the same division as that of See also:

Blackstone's Commentaries. Of See also:late years other objections have been expressed; serious omissions have been pointed out in the Code;, it has not given to See also:personal property the importance which it has acquired in the course of the 19th See also:century; it makes no See also:provision for dealing with the legal relations between employers, and employed which See also:modern complex undertakings involve; it does not treat of See also:life See also:insurance, &c. But this only proves that it could not fore-tell the future, for most of these questions are concerned with economic phenomena and social relations which did not exist at the See also:time when it was framed. The Code needed revising and completing, and this was carried out by degrees by means of numerous important laws. In 1904, after the celebration of the See also:centenary of the Code Civil, an extra-See also:parliamentary commission was nominated to prepare a revision of it, and at once began the work. The See also:influence of the Code Civil has been very great, not only in France but also abroad. See also:Belgium has preserved it, and the See also:Rhine provinces only ceased to be subject to it on the promulgation of the civil code of the See also:German See also:empire. Its ascendancy has been due chiefly to the clearness of its provisions, and to the spirit of See also:equity and equality which inspires them. Numerous more See also:recent codes have also taken it as a See also:model: the Dutch code, the See also:Italian, and the code of See also:Portugal; and, more remotely, the See also:Spanish code, and those of the Central and See also:South See also:American republics. In the See also:present day it is rivalled by the German civil code, which, having been See also:drawn up at the end of the 19th century, naturally does not show the same lacunae or omissions. It is inspired, however, by a very different spirit, and the French code does not suffer altogether by comparison with it either in substance or in form. See Le Code Civil, here du centenaire (See also:Paris, 1904), a collection of essays by French and See also:foreign lawyers.

(J. P.

End of Article: CODE NAPOLEON

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