As regards civil law in particular, the many legal entities used in different regions of France should be replaced by a single code. The Constituent Assembly voted on 5 October 1790 to codify the laws of the France, the Constitution of 1791 promised one, and the National Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on 4 September 1791, declaring that “there shall be a common code of civil laws for the whole Empire”. [5] However, it was the National Convention of 1793 that set up a special commission chaired by Jean-Jacques Régis de Cambacérès to oversee the design process. His plans of 1793 (for which he had been given a one-month delay), 1794, and 1796 were all rejected by a National Convention and a Directory, which were more concerned with the troubles resulting from the various wars and conflicts with other European powers. The first contained 719 articles and was very revolutionary, but was rejected and criticized as too technical because it was not radical or philosophical enough. The second, with only 297 articles, was dismissed as too short and criticized as a mere moral manual. The third, expanded to 1,104 articles, was presented under the Directory, a conservative regime, but was never discussed. With regard to the family, the Code established the primacy of the husband over his wife and children, which was the general legal situation in Europe at the time. Women have even fewer rights than children. Divorce by mutual consent was abolished in 1804. [9] Part 2. The conventional community and agreements that can change or even exclude the community of law This article supports the idea that Andres Bello benefited from different sources for different sections of his code when creating the Chilean Civil Code. It is claimed that Bello was influenced by Spanish colonial law when he prepared laws on family matters.
On the other hand, for commercial reasons, she claims that Bello was influenced by Code Napoleon. It also analyzes the historical and legal context of Chile to clearly demonstrate Bello`s adaptation of these laws. It uses examples to show how one country uses the codes of other countries to create its own. This semi-professional article analyzes the legal, political and theoretical context of the Napoleonic Code as well as the emergence and promulgation of this Code. It also highlights the development and impact of the Code Napoléon on the French community. In 1804, General Napoleon Bonaparte, as the new Emperor of France, embarked on the arduous task of overhauling the outdated and confusing legal system of the France. He founded a special commission, that of J.J. Cambacérès, who met more than 80 times to discuss revolutionary revisions of the law, and Napoleon presided over nearly half of these sessions. In March 1804, the Napoleonic Code was finally approved. Napoleon actively participated in the meetings of the Council of State, which revised the drafts of the new Civil Code. The development of the Code represented a fundamental change in the nature of the civil law legal system, as it emphasized clearly drafted and accessible law. Other codes were commissioned by Napoleon to codify criminal and commercial law.
The Civil Code retained the revolutionary law according to which a civil authority must solemnize marriages. (He did not recognize religious marriages as legal.) Many other family laws were based on traditional and even ancient Roman law. The father directed his children. A father can veto his son`s marriage until the age of 26 and his daughter`s marriage up to the age of 21. Fathers even had the right to lock up their children at will. The pre-Napoleonic French legal system lacked harmony. The word “system” cannot even be used to describe this web of laws because there was no systematic structure that ruled the France. Different provinces in France were governed by different laws.
The southern provinces of France were governed by Roman law, while the northern provinces of France were governed by customary law. Thus, the civil law systems of the countries of modern continental Europe, with the exception of Russia and the Scandinavian countries, were influenced to varying degrees by the Napoleonic Code. In the United States, whose legal system is largely based on English common law, the state of Louisiana is unique in that it has a strong influence of the Napoleonic Code and Spanish legal traditions on its civil code. During the overhaul of the entire legal system, the new Code of Civil Procedure was adopted in 1806. The term “Code Napoléon” is also used to refer to the jurisdictions of other jurisdictions influenced by the French Napoleonic Code, notably the Civil Code of Lower Canada (replaced by the Civil Code of Quebec in 1994), which is primarily derived from the Coutume de Paris, which the British continued to use in Canada after the Treaty of Paris of 1763. Most of the laws of Latin American countries are also influenced by the Napoleonic Code, for example .dem Chilean Civil Code and the Puerto Rican Civil Code. [23] In the United States, the legal system is largely based on English common law. But the state of Louisiana is unique in that it has a strong influence of the Napoleonic Code and Spanish legal traditions on its civil code. Spanish and French colonial troops fought for Louisiana for most of the 1700s, with Spain eventually ceding the area to the France in 1800, which in turn sold the area to the United States in 1803.
[24] The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives states control over laws that are not specifically delegated to the federal government, so Louisiana`s legal system retains many French elements. Examples of practical legal differences between Louisiana and other states include the bar exam and legal standards of practice for lawyers in Louisiana, which differ significantly from other states; Louisiana is the only U.S. state that practices forced inheritance of the estate of a deceased person; and some of Louisiana`s laws that conflict with the Uniform Commercial Code practiced by the other 49 states. [25] Napoleon set out to reform the French legal system according to the ideas of the French Revolution, as the old feudal and royal laws seemed confused and contradictory. After several projects rejected by other commissions, a new beginning took place after Napoleon came to power in 1799. A commission of four eminent jurists was appointed in 1800, including Louis-Joseph Fauré and chaired by Cambacérès (now second consul) and sometimes by the first consul, Napoleon himself. The code was completed in 1801 after extensive review by the Council of State, but was not published until March 21, 1804. It was promulgated as the “Civil Code of the French”, but was renamed “Code Napoléon” from 1807 to 1815 and again after the Second Empire.
Determined to unite the France into a strong modern nation, Napoleon lobbied for a single written law that applied to all. He appointed a commission to prepare a code. Napoleon wanted this code to be clear, logical and easy to understand for all citizens. The commission, composed of Napoleon and legal experts from all regions of France, met for several years. The French Civil Code, which came into force on March 21, 1804, marked the first major revision and reorganization of laws since Roman times. The Civil Code (renamed the Napoleonic Code in 1807) deals mainly with property and family issues. But these areas of law have greatly influenced people`s lives. “Is it not absurd and terrible that what is true in one village is false in another? What kind of barbarism do citizens have to live under different laws? When you travel to this realm, you change the legal system as often as you change horses. 1 Like other legal systems of the time, the Civil Code made a woman legally inferior to her husband: “The husband owes protection to his wife, and the wife owes obedience to her husband. Without her husband`s permission, a woman could not do business.
In addition, it was unable to conclude contracts. The Civil Code provided for the idea of community property. This means that a married couple is co-owner of all the property they have accumulated during their marriage and, in the event of divorce, they must share it equally. But the code limited this progressive (albeit very old) idea. Only the husband legally controlled all family property during the marriage, including property that his wife owned before the marriage. Between 1806 and 1810, Napoleon added a code of civil procedure, a commercial code, a code of criminal procedure, and a penal code to the revolutionary civil code of 1804. Although they covered many things, the laws themselves did not give much detail. Under the Napoleon system, courts sometimes have to use reason and logic to interpret how laws apply to certain cases. However, court decisions generally do not apply to future cases.
It is very different from common law systems. In common law countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, court decisions can become precedents with the force of law. In France, the codes adopted by the co-legislators are of paramount importance. If the codes need to be amended, the legislator updates them regularly. For example, after World War II, the French Parliament introduced legal equality between husband and wife into the Napoleonic Code. The possibility of lengthy pre-trial detention is one of the reasons why the Code Napoléon has been criticized for its factual presumption of guilt, especially in common law countries. Another reason was the combination of judge and prosecutor in one position. [14] However, the trial did not have a presumption of de jure guilt; For example, the jury`s oath specifically required that the jury not betray the interests of the accused and not ignore the defences.
