12 Facts About Code Napoleon

The Code Napoleon, with its stress on clearly written and accessible law, was a major step in replacing the previous patchwork of feudal laws.

Napoleonic Code was not the first legal code to be established in a European country with a civil-law legal system; it was preceded by the, the, and the West Galician Code .

The Napoleonic Code influenced developing countries outside Europe, especially in Latin America and the Middle East, attempting to modernize and defeudalize their countries through legal reforms.

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.

Code Napoleon set out to reform the French legal system in accordance with the ideas of the French Revolution, because the old feudal and royal laws seemed confusing and contradictory.

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The Code Napoleon was complete by 1801, after intensive scrutiny by the Council of State, but was not published until 21 March 1804.

The Napoleonic Code differed from Justinian's in important ways: it incorporated all kinds of earlier rules, not only legislation; it was not a collection of edited extracts, but a comprehensive rewrite; its structure was much more rational; it had no religious content, and it was written in the vernacular.

Development of the Napoleonic Code was a fundamental change in the nature of the civil law legal system, making laws clearer and more accessible.

Preliminary article of the Code Napoleon established certain important provisions regarding the rule of law.

Draft on Military Code was presented to Napoleon by the Special Commission headed by Pierre Daru in June 1805; however, as the War Against the Third Coalition progressed, the Code was put aside and never implemented.

Code Napoleon explained that it outlawed only "true crimes", and not "phony offenses created by superstition, feudalism, the tax system, and [royal] despotism".

Possibility of lengthy remand periods was one reason why the Napoleonic Code was criticized for its de facto presumption of guilt, particularly in common law countries.