Napoleonic Code - Contents of The Code

Contents of The Code

The preliminary article of the Code established certain important provisions regarding the rule of law. Laws could be applied only if they had been duly promulgated, and then only if they had been published officially (including provisions for publishing delays, given the means of communication available at the time). Thus, no secret laws were authorized. It prohibited ex post facto laws (i.e. laws that apply to events that occurred before their introduction). The code also prohibited judges from refusing justice on grounds of insufficiency of the law, and therefore, encouraging them to interpret the law. On the other hand, it prohibited judges from passing general judgments of a legislative value (see above).

With regard to family, the Code established the supremacy of the man over the wife and children - this was the general legal situation in Europe at the time. A woman was given the same rights as a minor. Divorce by mutual consent was actually abolished for women in 1804, a backward step.