CODES, Les Cing Codes; French law. The five codes.
2. These codes are, 1st. Code Civil, which is divided into three books;
book 1, treats of persons, and of the enjoyment and privation of civil
rights; book 2, of property and its different modifications; book 3, of the
different ways of acquiring property. One of the most perspicuous and able,
commentators on this code is Toullier, frequently cited in this work.
3.-2d. Code de procedure civille, which is divided into two parts.
Part 1, is divided into five books; 1. of justices of the. peace; 2. of
inferior tribunals; 3. of royal courts; 4. of extraordinary means of
proceeding; 5. of execution and judgment. Part 2, is divided into three
books; 1. of tender and consignation; 2. of process in relation to the
opening of a succession; 3. of arbitration.
4.-3d. Code de Commerce, in four books; 1. of commerce in general; 2.
of maritime commerce; 3. of failures and bankruptcy; 4. of commercial
jurisdiction. Pardessus is one of the ablest commentators on this code.
5.-4th. Code d'Instructions Criminelle, in two books; 1. of judiciary
police, and its officers; 2. of the administration of justice.
6.-5th. Code Penal, in four books; 1. of punishment in criminal and
correctional cases, and their effects; 2. of the persons punishable,
excusable or responsible, for their crimes or misdemeanors; 3. of crimes,
misdemeanors, (delits,) and their punishment; 4. of contraventions of
police, and their punishment. For the history of these codes, vide Merl.
Rep. h.t.; Motifs, Rapports, Opinions et Discours sur les Codes; Encyclop.
Amer. h.t.
7. Henrion de Pansey, late a president of the Court of Cassation,
remarks in reference to these codes: "In the midst of the innovations of
these later times, a system of uniformity has suddenly engrossed all minds,
and we have had imposed upon us the same weights, the same measures, the
same laws, civil, criminal, rural and commercial. These new codes, like
everything which comes from the hand of man, have imperfections and
obscurities. The administration of them is committed to nearly thirty
sovereign courts and a multitude of petty tribunals, composed of only three
judges, and yet are invested with the right of determining in the last
resort, under many circumstances. Each tribunal, the natural interpreter of
these laws, applies them according to its own view, and the new codes were
scarcely in operation before this beautiful system of uniformity became
nothing more than a vain theory. Authorite Judiciaire, c. 31, s. 10.
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