All French Civil Law Tradition

The French civil law tradition is a sub-family of the civil law legal family descended from the Napoleonic Code of 1804, characterized by a comprehensive, systematically organized civil code, a strong role for legislated statute over judicial precedent, and an inquisitorial procedural style. Napoleon Bonaparte spread this codified model through direct French territorial expansion and its later adoption as a model code by countries seeking a modern, unified civil law. It remains the dominant civil law sub-family across France itself, Belgium, much of Francophone Africa, Quebec, Louisiana and most of Latin America, where post-independence governments modeled their own civil codes directly on the French text.