Napoleon I and his Civil Code

20/08/2021
"My real glory is not to have won forty battles; Waterloo will erase the memory of so many victories; what nothing will erase, what will live on forever, is my Civil Code." These are the words of Napoleon I, born 15 August 1769 in Ajaccio.

Two centuries later, Napoleon’s imprint is still present in institutions, society and the arts. As soon as we mention his name, we think of his impressive legacy: the Civil Code, the Legion of Honor, the baccalaureate, street numbering, garbage collection, departments, high schools, prefects, prud’hommes, the Chamber of Commerce, the Court of Auditors and the Council of State. In Paris, the Arc de Triomphe, the Canal de l'Ourcq, the Rivoli street, the Madeleine Church, ...

The Napoleonic Wars were largely involved in the spread of the Civil Code in the occupied countries. Promulgated on 21 March, 1804, the Civil Code or "Napoleon Code", remains the major work of the Emperor.

The French Civil Code, usually called «Civil Code», «Napoleon Code» or «Napoleonic Code», is a legal code that groups together the laws relating to French civil law, i.e.  all the rules that determine the status of persons (book I), that of property (Book II) and that of relations between private persons (Books III and IV).

This text has been greatly modified since the Third Republic but remains, today, the foundation of French civil law and, more broadly, of all French law. Its field is in any case extremely broad:
• right of individuals (name, status of the person, legal personality, capacity, i.e. the conditions for taking actions, owning property, etc.),
• family law (filiation, marriage (civil), pacs, divorce), family patrimony law (matrimonial regimes, gifts, estates),
• property law (what types of property, movable or immovable, ownership, possession),
• obligations and contract law,
• etc.

The Civil Code of the French has inspired the legal system of many countries, either in the form of direct adoption or in the form of a rather strong influence.


Sources: https://fr.style.yahoo.com/code-civil-conqu%C3%AAtes-arts-florissant-120604737.html
https://jaimelesmots.com/le-cc-le-c-civ-ou-le-c-civ/
https://www.frwiki.org/wiki/Code_civil_de_1804