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In 1800, General Napoleon Bonaparte, as the new dictator of France, began the arduous task of revising France’s outdated and muddled legal system.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 203. Married persons contract together, by the single act of marriage, the obligation of nourishing, supporting, and bringing up their children.
Article 205. Children owe a maintenance to their fathers and mothers, and other ancestors who are in want thereof.
Article 206. Sons and daughters-in-law owe equally, under the same circumstances, a maintenance to their fathers and mothers-in-law….