Napoleonic Code (French Civil Code)
A law of 21 March 1804 combined 36 previously adopted laws into a single “Civil Code of the French”. The Code enshrined the equality of citizens before the law, civil marriage, the inviolability of private property and freedom of contract.
- Date
- 21 March 1804exact date
- Place
- Paristoday: Paris, France · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- French First Republic, Napoleon I
- Threads
- French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars
- Also known as
- Code civil; Code Napoléon
The draft was prepared by a commission of jurists; the Council of State debated it at 102 sessions, more than half of which were chaired by First Consul Bonaparte himself. The Code replaced a patchwork of customary, Roman and royal law with a single system and, with amendments, remains in force in France to this day.
In the wake of the French conquests it was introduced in Belgium, Luxembourg, Piedmont, the Netherlands and a number of German states, and it later served as a model for the civil codes of many countries in Europe and the Americas.
Connections
Related events
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen26 August 1789 · Western and Central EuropeEnshrining the equality of citizens before the law
Same participants
- Battle of Marengo14 June 1800 · Western and Central Europevia Napoleon I
- Louisiana Purchase30 April – 20 December 1803 · North Americavia French First Republic
- Coronation of Napoleon2 December 1804 · Western and Central Europevia Napoleon I
Same place
- Viking siege of Parisbetween 24 November and 25 November 885 – October 886 · Western and Central Europe
- Storming of the Bastille14 July 1789 · Western and Central Europe
- Execution of Louis XVI21 January 1793 · Western and Central Europe
- Coup of 18 Brumaire9–10 November 1799 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Paris18 (30) March 1814 – 19 (31) March 1814 · Western and Central Europe
- Hundred Days20 March – 8 July 1815 · Western and Central Europe
- Holy Alliance14 (26) September 1815 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- First Russian circumnavigation26 July (7 August) 1803 – 7 (19) August 1806
Balkans and Anatolia
- First Serbian Uprising14 February 1804 – 7 October 1813
Africa
- Jihad of Usman dan Fodio21 February 1804 – 1808
South Asia
- Battle of Assaye23 September 1803
East Asia
- Rezanov’s embassy to Japan26 September (8 October) 1804 – April 1805
- White Lotus Rebellionbetween 1794 and 1796 – 1804
North America
- Louisiana Purchase30 April – 20 December 1803
- Lewis and Clark Expedition14 May 1804 – 23 September 1806
Latin America
- Haitian Declaration of Independence1 January 1804
- Balmis Expedition30 November 1803 – 14 August 1806
- Haitian Revolutionbetween 21 August and 22 August 1791 – 1 January 1804