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French Civil Code, 1804
After four years of debate and planning, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte enacts a new legal framework for France, known as the “Napoleonic Code.” The civil code gave post-revolutionary France its first coherent set of laws concerning property, colonial affairs, the family, and individual rights.
In 1800, General Napoleon Bonaparte, as the new dictator of France, began the arduous task of revising France’s outdated and muddled legal system. He established a special commission, led by J.J. Cambaceres, which met more than 80 times to discuss the revolutionary legal revisions, and Napoleon presided over nearly half of these sessions. In March 1804, the Napoleonic Code was finally approved.
It codified several branches of law, including commercial and criminal law, and divided civil law into categories of property and family.
Article 37. Witnesses brought to attest documents in the civil courts shall be of the male sex only, of the age of 21 years at the least, relations, or others, and shall be chosen by the parties interested.
Article 38. The officers of the civil court shall read over their acts to the parties appearing of to their attorneys, and also to the witnesses. The performance of this formality shall be mentioned therein.
Article 53. The commissioner of government at the court…shall be bound to verify the state of the registers at the time of their being deposited among the rolls of the court…he shall certify all offenses and crimes committed by the officers of the civil courts, and shall demand sentence of fine against them.
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