Civil Code of France

Napoleonic Code
First page of the 1804 original edition.
Original title	Code civil des Français Code Napoléon
Date effective	21 March 1804 (frequently amended)

The Napoleonic Code (French: Code Napoléon; officially Code civil des Français, referred to as (le) Code civil) is the French civil code established under Napoléon I in 1804.

It was drafted by a commission of four eminent jurists and entered into force on 21 March 1804. The Code, with its stress on clearly written and accessible law, was a major step in replacing the previous patchwork of feudal laws. Historian Robert Holtman regards it as one of the few documents that have influenced the whole world.

The Napoleonic Code was not 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, 1794), and the West Galician Code (Galicia, then part of Austria, 1797). It was, however, the first modern legal code to be adopted with a pan-European scope, and it strongly influenced the law of many of the countries formed during and after the Napoleonic Wars. The Napoleonic Code influenced developing countries outside Europe, especially in the Middle East, attempting to modernize their countries through legal reforms.

The categories of the Napoleonic Code were not drawn from the earlier French laws, but instead from Justinian’s sixth-century codification of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis and within it, the Institutes. The Institutes divide law into the law of:

Similarly, the Napoleonic Code divided law into law of: