The content of Napoleon's civil code must be all ~ ~. .

Edit entry Napoleon code

Napoleon was known to China people, probably after the Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty. There is a seemingly true and untrue story: in an imperial examination in the late Qing Dynasty, an examiner who knew a little about westernization made a composition proposition "Xiang Yu and Napoleon". A candidate who has read many classics, struggling to understand the meaning of this topic, wrote: "I am so arrogant, afraid of being broken?" Don't laugh at this old intellectual who was hurt by the traditional education system of closing the door to the outside world.

Napoleon died in st Helena in 182 1. Before he died, he said, "The glory of winning forty wars in my life was erased by the Battle of Waterloo, but one of my achievements is immortal. This is my criterion." The Napoleonic Code (also called the French Civil Code or the Civil Code). It is a compulsory course of civil law in China's legal education, but only postgraduate and doctoral students of civil law can read through its 228 1 article. When we are drafting China's Property Law, we can't help thinking of this code. At present, many civil law scholars in our country are arguing about the principle of civil law property rights, and the jurists organized by the French emperor have solved it more than 200 years ago.

1789 In June, the National Assembly of the French Revolution passed a resolution, declaring that "all provinces in the country will stop collecting all kinds of taxes without the formal and explicit approval of the parliament", and the king has no right to decide on taxes. King Louis XVI was furious at this and dismissed Necker, the finance director who advocated that the tax power should belong to the parliament.

The contradiction between the king and the National Assembly intensified. In July, the city of Paris was controlled by rebels. The Bastille was captured. The French Revolution triggered by "Who has the right to decide taxes" broke out in an all-round way. 1792 In September, the monarchy that ruled France for thousands of years was abolished and Louis XVI was guillotined. 1799 Napoleon seized power in chaos, launched a "foggy month coup" and established an executive government.

10 months later, he ordered the establishment of a "civil law drafting Committee" composed of four members, stipulating that members must complete the drafting of the civil law within 1 1 month. The drafting committee completed the draft civil law as scheduled, which was studied and revised by Dali University and the Court of Appeal, and then submitted to the Senate for discussion and revision. The Senate held 102 seminar on the draft civil law, chaired by Napoleon, and held 97 public discussions. The legislative yuan finally passed the bill unanimously. On March 2 1804 and 1 day, this exemplary code in human history was officially published. The four people appointed by Napoleon as drafters of civil law were President Tranche of Dali, Maryville, an expert in Roman law, Bigod Prey Amenius, a government magistrate, and Berta, a judge of the naval court.

The Napoleonic Code, also known as the French Civil Code, is the earliest civil code in bourgeois countries. 1789, the product of the French bourgeois revolution, 1804 was promulgated and implemented. After many revisions, it is still valid in France. Originally named the French Civil Code, 1807 was renamed the Napoleonic Code, 18 16 was renamed the Civil Code, and 1852 was renamed the Napoleonic Code, but since 1870,

The French Civil Code was adopted on March 2 1804. In addition to the general provisions, the code is divided into three parts. Article 228 1 is on the cover of the first edition of the French Civil Code. The first part is personal law, which contains the provisions of personal law and relative law, and is actually about the subject of civil rights. The second part is the Property Law, which contains provisions on various properties, ownership and other property rights. In fact, it is about the static object of civil rights. The third part is called "various methods to obtain ownership". The content is quite complicated: firstly, inheritance, gift, will and marital property system are stipulated; Secondly, the debt law is stipulated, and the mortgage law is attached; Finally, the prescription of acquisition and extinction are stipulated. This part is actually about the provisions of various possibilities for the object of civil rights to be transferred from one right subject to another.

Legislative principles This code can be summarized into three principles: the principle of freedom and equality, the principle of ownership and the principle of contractual autonomy.

As far as the principles of freedom and equality are concerned, the law includes two basic provisions. Article 1 1 stipulates: "All French people enjoy civil rights." Civil rights refer to non-political rights, including personal rights, relatives' rights and property rights. Article 488 stipulates that an adult (changed from 1974 to 18) has reached the age of 2 1 one year, and after reaching this age, he has all the capacity in civil life except for the exceptions stipulated in the marriage seal. That is to say, in principle, everyone enjoys equal capacity for civil conduct from the day of adulthood, although there are certain legal restrictions on the enjoyment of this capacity.

(2) As far as the principle of ownership is concerned, Articles 544-546 of this Law give the owners of movable and immovable property full and extensive rights and guarantees. The definition of ownership is "the right to use, benefit and dispose of things absolutely without restriction". The expropriation of private property by the state can only be based on the reasons of public welfare, and on the condition that all people get fair and prior compensation. The owner of both movable property and immovable property has the right to obtain everything produced by the property and attached to it. This provision enables the bourgeois means of production to be freely used, profited and sold, and at the same time, farmers' private land is also guaranteed. The code also stipulates the usufruct and easement of other people's property, which is very important to the small-scale peasant economy.

③ autonomy of contract will, or the principle of freedom of contract, is stipulated in Article 1 134: "A contract established according to law has the same legal effect among the parties who conclude the contract." Unless the contract violates the public order and good customs mentioned in Article 6 of the Code, it has no legal effect. A contract is an agreement with two or more expressions of will, the purpose of which is to produce some legal effect, or to transfer the ownership from one person to another, or to generate some debts, or to discharge the debts previously concluded by the parties, or just to change some existing agreements. This code endows two or more individuals with the same expression of meaning that is equivalent to legal effect, so that they have mutual rights and obligations through their own actions, thus changing their original legal status. Therefore, contract autonomy is also called party autonomy. Once a contract is legally established, the parties must perform it in good faith according to the agreement, and may not change or terminate it without the consent of * * * *. The property of the parties to a contract, even the person (the civil detention of the debtor in breach of contract was originally stipulated in the code), is the guarantee for the performance of the contract. Based on these concepts, legislators have formulated a series of regulations: compulsory performance of contractual obligations, damages for non-performance, delay in performance, bankruptcy procedures of debtors, and so on.

In the French Civil Code, more than 1000 articles are used to stipulate the obligations of contracts, which shows the importance of contracts to capitalist society. Contract autonomy is also implemented in the name of formal equality and freedom, which is the logical result of the principle of freedom and equality. Marx profoundly criticized this principle in Das Kapital.

With the changes in the political, economic and social situation in France in the past 65,438+000 years, the Code has been revised more than 65,438+000 times to constantly adapt to the new situation. The most important of these are: 18 19 abolished Article 726 and Article 9 12, thus making foreigners and French people in a completely equal position in inheritance law; 1854 law abolished the civil death system in Articles 22-33 and the civil detention system in Articles 2059-2070. 1855 registration law improves the provisions on mortgage. 187 1 after the consolidation of the third Republic, a large-scale code reform movement was carried out. This campaign is mainly aimed at marriage law and relative law. Therefore, the formal and substantive elements of marriage have been revised, especially the requirements for parental consent have been relaxed, which is more convenient for the parties. 18 16 abolished the divorce system, 1884 resumed, but 1945 resumed the divorce based on the consent of husband and wife. With regard to the exercise of parental rights, a control system has been established. The Law on the Protection of Abused or Abandoned Minors 1889,19, 192 1 stipulates that parental rights can be deprived or restricted in some cases. Due to the war, the law of 1923 made major changes to the provisions on adoption, and the law of 1966 was revised. As laws 189 1, 19 17, 1925 made supplementary provisions on the usufructuary right of part of the spouse's inheritance, the right of husband and wife to inherit the other's inheritance was expanded. 1965 law fundamentally changed the husband-wife joint property system. The property system was abolished, allowing wives to open bank accounts and manage personal property without their husbands' consent. Law 1970 abolished the principle that the husband is the head of the family. Finally, Law 1972 abolished the unequal status of children born in and out of wedlock.

The influence of code has considerable influence in many bourgeois countries. First of all, it is applicable to some countries where 1804 originally belonged to France, so it has been within its effective scope since the date of implementation of the code. Belgium and Luxembourg still regard it as their own code. This code is still in force in some former colonies in France. For example, the current civil code in Quebec, Canada, is based partly on this code and partly on Paris customary law. Louisiana, USA began to adopt this code from 1825, but made some modifications and supplements. Secondly, some countries have formulated their own civil codes based on this code. For example, the Danish Civil Code of 1838 is based on this code, and the Greek Civil Code of 1940 is also based on this code. Finally, the civil codes of many countries were influenced to some extent by this code when they were compiled, such as German Civil Code 1896, Swiss Civil Code 1907, Portuguese Civil Code 1867, Spanish Civil Code 1889 and Spanish Civil Code 6544.

The Napoleonic Code is the first civil code of bourgeois countries in human history, with clear principles, reasonable arrangement, rigorous logic and concise language, which is a milestone in the history of world legal system. This French Civil Code, which was born in 1804, was formulated to defend the achievements of the bourgeois revolution during the French Revolution. Moreover, the legislative spirit and principles of this code were also used for reference and imitated by many later European countries. With Napoleon's military expansion in Europe, the Napoleonic Code was also applicable wherever the French army went. Because of its systematicness, integrity and standardization, this code has had a great influence on the legislation of other capitalist countries and played a role in legislative norms, so it has a wide range of world significance, and its inherent values and ideas are still dazzling even today.

List of Napoleonic Codes:

Publication and effect of general law

First editor

Chapter I the enjoyment and loss of civil rights

Chapter II Identity Proof

Chapter III Residence

Chapter IV Absence

Chapter V Marriage

Chapter VI Divorce

Chapter VII Parents and Children

Chapter VIII Adoption and Informal Guardianship

Chapter IX Parental Rights