The French Civil Code

The French Civil Code, commonly known as the Civil Code (C. Civ. Or DC) or as the Napoleonic Code (according to the 1807 Act), includes laws relating to French civil law, that is to say the set of rules that determine the status of persons (I), property (II) and the relationships between individuals (III) private. Issued March 21, 1804 (30 Ventose year XII) by Napoleon Bonaparte, he took some of the articles of the custom of Paris and statutory law in the South of France. Amended and extended numerous times from the Third Republic, the most primitive sections of Titles II and III remain (more than 1120 articles on the 2281 original in the early 20001).

The civil code is the personal status of French citizens, their families and their relationships, except for the French living in Mayotte, New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna, which, under Article 75 of the Constitution of 1958, have not opted for the status of law and have the customary status. Also, the Napoleonic Code is still in force in Mauritius, left in place after the British conquest, even if it has changed somewhat in the future.

This text has been significantly changed since the Third Republic, but is still today the basis of French civil law and more broadly across the French law. The dean said Jean Carbonnier and the Civil Code it is "the civil constitution of the French." His area is extremely large: the right of persons (names, status of the human person, juridical personality, the disabilities, that is to say, the conditions for passing acts, to own property, etc.), the Family Law (parentage, marriage, civil partnerships, divorce), the economic rights of the family (marriage settlements, gifts, inheritances), Property Law (what types of property, movable or immovable property, the ownership, possession), the law of obligations and contracts, and more technical but essential as the issue of limitation of rights.

`The edition contains the text of the code. Version in force October 20, 2011. (Last modified: September 1, 2011)