[Civil Code] – DRAFT CIVIL CODE PRESENTED BY THE COMMISSION APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNMENT ON 24 THERMIDOR YEAR 8
[Civil Code] – DRAFT CIVIL CODE PRESENTED BY THE COMMISSION APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNMENT ON 24 THERMIDOR YEAR 8
[Civil Code] – DRAFT CIVIL CODE PRESENTED BY THE COMMISSION APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNMENT ON 24 THERMIDOR YEAR 8
    [Code Civil]
    DRAFT CIVIL CODE PRESENTED BY THE COMMISSION APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNMENT ON 24 THERMIDOR YEAR 8
Édition :
    Paris
Date :
    year 8
    quarto, mottled brown calf, raised bands on spine, red edges, (amateur rest. on spine), very fresh interior, wide margin printing, LXVI-355 p.
    Following the coup of 18 Brumaire, Bonaparte scrapped all previous drafts of the Civil Code, including the last one, the Jacqueminot draft, which was never even discussed. By a decree of 24 Thermidor, Year VIII (August 15, 1800), the Consuls, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of 22 Frimaire, Year VIII (December 15, 1800), which granted them the power to initiate legislation (articles 25 and 44), decided to begin drafting a new version. To this end, they appointed a commission composed of Tronchet, President of the Court of Cassation; Portalis, Councillor of State and Government Commissioner to the Prize Court; Bigot-Préameneu, Government Commissioner to the Court of Cassation; and Malleville, a member of the same Court. The mission of this commission was described in the decree appointing it as follows: “to compare the order followed in drafting the civil code projects published to date, to determine the plan that would seem most appropriate to adopt, and then to discuss the principal foundations of civil legislation.” To this end, the commission drafted a proposed Code, which it prefaced with a “Preliminary Discourse” containing the discussion requested by the decree. It demonstrated a zeal that has often been noted, as this work was completed within four months. Publication took place in Frimaire Year IX (January 1801), and the draft was then sent to the Court of Cassation and the Courts of Appeal for their observations. Here again, their diligence was remarkable, as all the observations had been submitted by Messidor (July) of the same year. On 28 Messidor (July 18, 1794), Bonaparte had the Council of State determine the procedure for adopting the Code: the draft would be divided into as many laws as there were subjects to be examined, the preliminary provisions would be included in a single draft, and the commission that had prepared the draft was responsible for this division and for submitting each of the resulting draft laws to the Council of State. The text we present here contains the draft code written by the commission, preceded by the Preliminary Discourse, co-signed by all its members, in the form in which it was sent to the Courts of Appeal and Cassation. Three different editions exist. An octavo edition from the Imprimerie de la République (Printing House of the Republic), intended for public information, and a version of the same format published by the printer Pauvelle are both uncommon. The third edition, the one presented here, is even rarer. Although in quarto format, it is printed with the same typeface as the octavo edition, to leave half the page for annotations. This edition was therefore intended for the courts, to allow them to submit their observations. It is known that only two or three copies were sent to each jurisdiction because the print run was very limited. Thus, we are presenting one of the very last unannotated copies here. The importance of this text is well known; it contains significant differences from the draft that would ultimately be adopted after discussion in the Council of State. The “Preliminary Discourse,” for its part, is a rarely reproduced text (except in Fenet's collection), and yet it deserves to be compared with the one delivered by Portalis in 1804, before the final adoption of the Code (after each of the drafts had been adopted separately), as it reflects a more liberal general philosophy (see in particular the passages on the judges' discretion, the usefulness of commentaries, and the critique of legislative rescripts).

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