Napoleonic Code

Document Text

BOOK I: Of Persons

TITLE I: Of the Enjoyment and Privation of Civil Rights

CHAPTER I: Of the Enjoyment of Civil Rights

7. The exercise of civil rights is independent of the quality of citizen, which is only acquired and preserved conformably to the constitutional law.

8. Every Frenchman shall enjoy civil rights.

9. Every individual born in France of a foreigner, may, during the year which shall succeed the period of his majority, claim the quality of Frenchman; provided, that if he shall reside in France he declares his intention to fix his domicil in that country, and that in case he shall reside in a foreign country, he give security to become domiciled in France and establish himself there within a year, to be computed from the date of that undertaking.

10. Every child born of a Frenchman in a foreign country is French. Every child born in a foreign country of a Frenchman who shall have lost the quality of a Frenchman, may at any time recover this quality by complying with the formalities prescribed in the ninth article.

11. A foreigner shall enjoy in France the same civil rights as are or shall be accorded to Frenchmen by the treaties of that nation to which such foreigner shall belong.

12. The foreigner who shall have married a Frenchman, shall follow the condition of her husband.

13. The foreigner who shall have been permitted by the government to establish his domicil in France, shall enjoy in that country all civil rights so long as he shall continue to reside there.

14. A foreigner, although not resident in France, may be cited before the French courts, to enforce the execution of engagements contracted by him in France with a Frenchman; he may be summoned before the tribunals of France, on account of engagements entered into by him with Frenchmen in a foreign country.

15. A Frenchman may be summoned before a French court, for engagements contracted by him in a foreign country, though with a foreigner.

16. In all causes, except commercial ones, in which a foreigner shall be plantiff, he shall be required to give security for the payment of the costs and damages incident to the suit, unless he possess in France immoveable property of value sufficient to guarantee such payment.

CHAPTER II: Of the Privation of Civil Rights

SECTION I: Of the Privation of Civil Rights by the Loss of the Quality of Frenchman

17. The quality of Frenchman shall be lost, 1st, by naturalization in a foreign country; 2d, by accepting, without the authority of government, public employments bestowed by a foreign power; 3dly, by adoption into any foreign corporation which shall require distinctions of birth; 4thly, in short, by any settlement made in a foreign country, without intention of return.

Commercial establishments shall never be considered as having been made without intention of return.

18. A Frenchman, who shall have lost his quality of Frenchman, may at any time recover it by returning to France with the sanction of government, declaring at, the same time his intention to settle there, and his renunciation of every distinction inconsistent with the law of France.

19. A Frenchwoman, who shall espouse a foreigner, shall follow the condition of her husband.

If she become a widow, she shall recover the quality of Frenchwoman, provided she already reside in France, or that she return thither under the sanction of government, and declare at the same time her intention to fix there.

20. The individuals who shall recover the quality of Frenchman or Frenchwoman in the cases provided for by Articles 10, 18, and 19, shall not be permitted to avail themselves of it until they have fulfilled the conditions imposed upon them by those articles, and only for the exercise of rights open to their advantage after that period.

21. The Frenchman who, without the authority of the government, shall engage in military service with a foreign power, or shall enrol himself in any foreign military association, shall lose his quality of Frenchman.

He shall not be permitted to re-enter France without the permission of the government, nor to recover the quality of Frenchman except by complying with the conditions required of a foreigner in order to become a citizen; and this without affecting the punishments denounced by the criminal law against Frenchmen who have borne or shall bear arms against their country.

SECTION II: Of the Privation of Civil Rights in Consequence of Judicial Proceedings

22. Sentences to punishments, the effect of which is to deprive the party condemned of all participation in the civil rights hereafter mentioned, shall imply civil death.

23. Sentence to natural death shall imply civil death.

24. Other perpetual afflictive punishments shall not imply civil death, except so far as the law shall have attached that consequence to them.

25. By civil death, the party condemned loses his property in all the goods which he possessed; and the succession is open for the benefit of his heirs, on whom his estate devolves, in the same manner as if he were naturally dead and intestate.

He can no longer inherit any estate, nor transmit, by this title, the property which he has acquired in consequence.

He is no longer capable of disposing of his property, in whole or in part, either by way of gift during his life, or by will, nor of receiving by similar title, except for the purpose of subsistence. He cannot be nominated guardian, nor concur in any act relative to guardianship.

He cannot be a witness in any solemn public act, nor be admitted to give evidence in any court. He cannot engage in any suit, whether as defendant or plaintiff, except in the name and by the intervention of a special curator appointed for him by the court in which the action is brought.

He is incapable of contracting a marriage attended by any civil consequences.

If he have previously contracted marriage, it is dissolved, as respects all civil effects. His wife and his heirs shall respectively exercise those rights and demands to which his natural death would have given rise.

26. Peremptory sentences only import civil death, reckoning from the day of their execution, whether real or by representation.

27. Condemnations for contumacy shall not import civil death until after five years from the execution of the sentence by representation, and during which the condemned party may make his appearance.

28. Those condemned for contumacy shall, during five years, or until they shall make appearance, or until their arrest during that period, be deprived of the exercise of civil rights. Their estate shall be administered and their rights exercised in the same manner as those of absent persons.

29. When the party under sentence for contumacy shall appear voluntarily during the five years, to be reckoned from the day of the execution, or when he shall have been seized and made prisoner during that interval, the judgment shall be entirely reversed; the accused shall be restored to the possession of his property; he shall be tried afresh; and if by the new judgment he is condemned to the same punishment or a different punishment equally drawing after it civil death, it shall only take place from the date of the execution of the second judgment.

30. When a party condemned for contumacy, who shall not have appeared, or who shall not have been made prisoner until the expiration of the five years, shall be acquitted by this new judgment, or shall only be sentenced to a punishment that does not carry with it civil death, he shall be reinstated in the full enjoyment of his civil rights for the future, reckoning from the day on which he shall have reappeared in court; but the first judgment shall extend, as regards the past, to all consequences produced by civil death during the interval which elapsed between the period of the expiration of the five years and the day of appearance in court.

31. If the party under sentence for contumacy dies during the five years interval of grace without having appeared, or without having been seized or arrested, he shall be deemed dead as to the entirety of his rights; judgment of contumacy shall be reversed entirely without prejudice nevertheless to the action of any civil plaintiff, which shall only be entered against the heirs of the party condemned according to the civil form.

32. In no case shall efflux of time (prescription) after sentence restore a party condemned to his civil rights for the future.

33. Property acquired by an outlawed person, after incurring civil death, and of which he shall be found possessed at the date of his natural death, shall belong to the nation by right of disherison. Nevertheless the government shall be allowed to make for the benefit of the widow, children, or relations of the party condemned, such disposition respecting it as humanity shall suggest. . . .

TITLE V: Of Marriage

. . .

CHAPTER VI: Of the Respective Rights and Duties of Married Persons

212. Married persons owe to each other fidelity, succour, assistance.

213. The husband owes protection to his wife, the wife obedience to her husband.

214. The wife is obliged to live with her husband, and to follow him to every place where he may judge it convenient to reside: the husband is obliged to receive her, and to furnish her with every thing necessary for the wants of life, according to his means and station.

215. The wife cannot plead in her own name, without the authority of her husband, even though she should be a public trader, or non-communicant, or separate in property.

216. The authority of the husband is not necessary when the wife is prosecuted in a criminal matter, or relating to police.

217. A wife, although non-communicant or separate in property, cannot give, alienate, pledge, or acquire by free or chargeable title, without the concurrence of her husband in the act, or his consent in writing.

218. If the husband refuse to authorize his wife to plead in her own name, the judge may give her authority.

219. If the husband refuse to authorize his wife to pass an act, the wife may cause her husband to be cited directly before the court of first instance, of the circle of their common domicil, which may give or refuse its authority, after the husband shall have been heard, or duly summoned before the chamber of council.

220. The wife, if she is a public trader, may, without the authority of her husband, bind herself for that which concerns her trade; and in the said case she binds also her husband, if there be a community between them.

She is not reputed a public trader, if she merely retail goods in tier husband¹s trade, but only when she carries on a separate business.

221. When the husband is subjected to a. condemnation, carrying with it an afflictive or infamous punishment, although it may have been pronounced merely for contumacy, the wife, though of age, cannot, during the continuance of such punishment, plead in her own name or contract, until after authority given by the judge, who may in such case give his authority, without hearing or summoning the husband.

222. If the husband is interdicted or absent, the judge, on cognizance of the cause, may authorize his wife either to plead in her own name or to contract.

223. Every general authority, though stipulated by the contract of marriage, is invalid, except as respects the administration of the property of the wife.

224. If the husband is a minor, the authority of the judge is necessary for his wife, either to appear in court, or to contract.

225. A nullity, founded on defect of authority, can only be opposed by the wife, by the husband, or by their heirs.

226. The wife may make a will without the authority of her husband.

CHAPTER VII: Of the Dissolution of Marriage

227. Marriage is dissolved,

1st. By the death of one of the parties;

2d. By divorce lawfully pronounced;

3d. By condemnation become final of one of the married parties to a punishment implying civil death. . . .

TITLE IX: Of Paternal Power

Decreed the 24th of March, 1803. Promulgated 3rd of April.

371. A child, at every age, owes honor and respect to his father and mother.

372. He remains subject to their control until his majority or emancipation.

373. The father alone exercises this control during marriage.

374. A child cannot quit the paternal mansion without the permission of his father, unless for voluntary enlistment after the full age of eighteen years.

375. A father who shall have cause of grievous dissatisfaction at the conduct of a child, shall have the following means of correction.

376. If the child have not commenced his sixteenth year, the father may cause him to be confined for a period which shall not exceed one month; and to this effect the president of the court of the circle shall be bound, on his petition, to deliver an order of arrest.

377. From the age of sixteen years commenced to the majority or emancipation, the father is only empowered to require the confinement of his child during six months at the most; he shall apply to the president of the aforesaid court, who, after having conferred thereon with the commissioner of government, shall deliver an order of arrest or refuse the same, and may in the first case abridge the time of confinement required by the father.

378. There shall not be in either case, any writing or judicial formality, except the order itself for arrest, in which the reasons thereof shall not be set forth.

The father shall only be required to subscribe an undertaking to defray all expenses and to supply suitable support.

379. The father is always at liberty to abridge the duration of the confinement by him ordered or required. If the child after his liberation fall into new irregularities, his confinement may be ordered anew, according to the manner prescribed in the preceding articles.

380. If the father be remarried, he shall be bound to conform to article 377, in order to procure the confinement of his child by the first bed, though under the age of sixteen years.

381. The mother surviving and not married again is not empowered to cause the confinement of a child, except with the concurrence of the two nearest paternal relations, and by means of requisition, conformably to article 377.

382. When the child shall possess personal property, or when he shall exercise an office, his confinement shall not take place, even under the age of sixteen years, except by way of requisition in the form prescribed by article 377.

The child confined may address a memorial to the commissioner of government in the court of appeal. This commissioner shall cause the child to render a detail in the court of first instance, and shall make his report to the president of the court of appeal, who, after having given intimation thereof to the father, and after having collected the proofs, may revoke or modify the order delivered by the president of the court of first instance.

383. Articles 376, 377, 378, and 379, shall be common to fathers and mothers of natural children, legally recognized.

384. The father during marriage, and, after the dissolution of marriage, the father or mother surviving, shall have the enjoyment of the property of their children, until the full age of eighteen years, or until emancipation, which may take place before the age of eighteen years.

385. The conditions of such enjoyment shall be—1st. Those by which usufructuaries are bound;

2d. Nourishment, maintenance, and education of children, according to their fortune;

3d. The payment of arrears or interest on capital;

4th. Funeral expenses, and those of the last sickness.

386. This enjoyment shall not take place for the benefit of a father or mother against whom a divorce shall have been pronounced; and it shall cease with regard to the mother in the case of a second marriage.

387. It shall not extend to property which children may have acquired by separate labor and industry, nor to such as shall be given or bequeathed to them under the express condition that their father and mother shall not enjoy it. . . .

BOOK III: Of the Different Modes of Acquiring Property

. . .

TITLE VIII: Of the Contract of Hiring

. . .

CHAPTER III: Of the Hiring of Labor and Industry

. . .

SECTION III: Of Estimates and Works by Contract

1787. When a party is charged with the performance of a work, it may be agreed that he shall supply only his labor or skill, or further, that he shall also supply materials.

1788. If, in the case in which the workman furnishes the material, the thing happens to perish, in whatsoever manner it may be, before being delivered, the loss thereof falls on the workman, unless the master be guilty of negligence in not receiving the thing.

1789. In the case in which the workman supplies only his labor or his skill, if the thing happen to perish, the workman is only bound for his own misconduct.

1790. If, in the case of the preceding article, the thing happens to perish, though without any fault on the part of the workman, before the work has been received, and without the master having been guilty of delay in showing it, the workman has no wages to claim, unless the thing have perished by the fault of the material.

1791. If the question respect work in several parts, or by measure, the proof thereof may be made in parts; it is deemed to have been made for all tbe parties paid, if the master pay the workman in proportion to the work done.

1792. If the edifice, built at a set price, perish in whole or in part by defect in its construction, even by defect in the foundation, the architect and the contractor are responsible therefor for ten years.

1793. When an architect or contractor has undertaken to erect a building upon a penalty, after a plan settled and agreed with the proprietor of the soil, be cannot demand any augmentation of price, neither under pretext of augmentation of the value of labor, or of materials, nor under that of alteration. or enlargements of such plan, if such alterations or enlargements have not been authorized in writing, and the price agreed with the proprietor.

1794. The master may rescind by his single will the bargain with penalty, although the work be already begun on indemnifying the contractor for all his expenses, for all his labor, and for all which he might have gained in such undertaking.

1795. The contract for hiring of work is dissolved by the death of the workman, of the architect, or contractor.

1796. But the proprietor is bound to pay according to the price contained in the agreement, to their succession, the value of work done and that of materials prepared, at the time only when such labors and such materials may be of service to him.

1797. The contractor is responsible for the act of the persons he employs.

1798. Masons, carpenters, and other workmen, who have been employed in the construction of a building, or of other works done by contract, have no action against the party for whom such work has been done, except to the amount in which he is found to be debtor towards the contractor, at the moment at which their action is brought.

1799. Masons, carpenters, locksmiths, and other workmen, who directly make bargains at fixed prices, are bound by the rules prescribed in the present section: they are contractors in the calling in which they deal.

---

Source: George Spence, trans. The Code Napoleon; or, the French Civil Code. London, 1824.