12 Facts About Napoleonic Code

The Napoleonic Code, 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.

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

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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 Napoleonic Code established certain important provisions regarding the rule of law.

Draft on Military Napoleonic 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 Napoleonic Code was put aside and never implemented.

Napoleonic Code 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.

Term "Napoleonic Code" is used to refer to legal codes of other jurisdictions that are influenced by the French Code Napoleon, especially the Civil Code of Lower Canada, mainly derived from the Coutume de Paris, which the British continued to use in Canada following the 1763 Treaty of Paris.