Today on March 21, 1804, the Napoleonic Code was formally ratified in France—one of the most influential legacies of the French emperor.
After years of revisions and debate, the Civil Code of the French, commonly known as the Napoleonic Code, was formally ratified. The French Consulate approved the final document, leading to a massive overhaul of the country’s entire legal system. From a legal perspective, post-revolutionary France still remained in chaos. The state had yet to establish a unified set of laws and still relied on a complex patchwork of old royal customs—many of which had sparked the French Revolution in 1789.
At the time, the provinces in Southern France continued to use Roman law, while the north had adopted various elements from feudal Germanic institutions. French laws were also influenced by different local customs, such as the Custom of Paris.
