Abstract
The role of the father in the ‘Civil Code of the French’, which was drawn up between 1800 and 1804,1 was conceived of as political in the widest sense of the term, in terms both of the highly specific political context of the years of the après-Thermidor and of its underlying theory, the two moreover being confounded in the minds of those who analysed the conjuncture and legislated accordingly.
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Notes
Cf. Martin, ‘Aux sources thermidoriennes du Code civil. Contribution à une histoire politique du droit privé’, in Droits. Revue française de Théorie juridique 6, 1987, 107–16.
It is notable that these two latter words are reputed to have entered the French language with this meaning respectively in 1756 (Mirabeau the Elder) and 1762 (Bonnet). See A. Dauzat, J. Dubois and H. Mitterand, Nouveau dictionnaire étymologique et historique (Paris: Larousse, 1971).
Morelly, Code de la nature (1755) (Paris: Editions Sociales, 1970) p. 144: ‘Every citizen, on attaining marriagable age, will be married’.
D’Holbach, Ethocratie, ou le gouvernement fondé sur la morale (Amsterdam, M.M. Rey, 1776, reprint Paris: EDHIS, 1967) p. 214.
Diderot, Mémoires pour Catherine II (1773–1774) (Paris: Garnier, 1966) p. 205.
Helvétius, Correspondance générale (Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press and Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation, 1981) p. 274
Chamfort, Maximes, pensées, caractères et anecdotes (written between 1780 and 1794) (Paris: Garnier Flammarion, 1968) p. 275.
Presentation of the second revolutionary draft of a Code civil, 23 Fructidor, Year II, 9 September 1794: P.-A. Fenet, Recueil complet des Travaux préparatoires du Code civil 1 (Paris: unnamed publisher, 1827) p. 104 (my emphasis).
Rousseau, Projet de Constitution pour la Corse (1760–1769) in Oeuvres complètes 3 (Paris: Gallimard, 1964) p. 919
The Tribune Carrion-Nisas, 28 Ventôse, Year XI, 19 March 1803: Archives parlementaires, second series, vol. 4, p. 398/1.
See Martin, ‘A tout âge? Sur la durée du pouvoir des pères dans le Code Napoléon’, in Revue d’Histoire des Facultés de Droit et de la Science juridique, 13 (1992), pp. 227–301
Boulay de la Meurthe, President of the Legislation Section of the Council of State, 4 Germinal Year VIII (25 March 1800), Archives parlementaires, Second series, vol. 1, p. 509/2 (my emphasis).
At the Council of State, 30 Frimaire Year XII (22 December 1803): Archives parlementaires, second series, vol. 7, p. 742/1.
Cf. Martin, Nature humaine et Révolution française. Du Siècle des Lumières au Code Napoléon (Bouère: DMM, 1994), for example p. 77 and pp. 255–6.
Volney, La Loi naturelle, ou principes physiques de la morale (1793) (Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1980) p. 48.
At the Council of State, on liberalities, 28 Pluviôse, Year XI, (17 February 1803): Archives parlementaires, second series, vol. 7, p. 446/1.
Bigot-Préameneu, 2 Floréal Year XI (22 April 1803): Archives parlementaires, second series, vol. 4, p. 719/2, my emphasis.
Remarks made at the Riom tribunal of appeal, 14 Fructidor Year IX (1 September 1801): Archives parlementaires, second series, vol. 6, p. 774/2.
The Tribune Lahary, 28 Ventôse Year XII (19 March 1804): Archives parlementaires, second series, vol. 6, p. 165/2.
Martin, ‘Madame de Staël, Napoléon et les idéologues’, in Himeji International Forum of Law and Politics 1, 1993, 39–62, especially p. 54.
Rousseau, Julie ou La Nouvelle Héloïse (1761) (Paris: Garnier, 1988) p. 255.
Cabanis, Rapports du Physique et du Moral de l’Homme (1802, 1803, 1805) reprint of the 1844 edition (Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980) p. 229.
Council of State, 26 Frimaire Year X (17 December 1801): Fenet, op.cit., 10, p. 548. Cf. the excellent articles by Yvonne Knibiehler, ‘Les médecins et la “nature féminine” au temps du Code civil’, in Annales. Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations 4, (1976) pp. 824–45
Michel Delon, ‘Combats philosophiques, préjugés masculins et fiction romanesque sous le Consulat’ in Raison Présente 67, (1983) pp. 67–76.
The Tribune Carrion-Nisas, 19 Pluviôse Year XII (9 February 1804): Archives parlementaires, second series, vol. 5, p. 435/2.
Montesquieu, Les Lettres persanes (1721) (Paris: Bordas, 1949) p. 182.
D’Holbach, La Morale universelle, ou les devoirs de l’homme fondés sur sa nature, Third Part (Amsterdam: M.M. Rey, 1776) p. 43.
21 Pluviôse Year XI (10 February): Archives parlementaires, second series, vol. 7, p. 442/2. ‘Appears to govern the least’: I have, in this respect, advanced some ideas concerning the possible nature of liberalism, both liberal individualism and the liberal state, in ‘L’Individualisme libéral en France autour de 1800: essai de spectroscopic’ in Revue d’Histoire des Facultés de Droit et de la Science juridique 4, (1987) 87–144, particularly pp. 132–4.
Council of State, 30 Nivôse Year XI (20 January 1803): Archives parlementaires, second series, vol. 7, p. 426/2.
Bonaparte, at the Council of State, 4 Nivôse Year XI (25 December 1801): Fenet, Recueil...10, p. 350.
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Martin, X. (1998). The Paternal Role and the Napoleonic Code. In: Spaas, L. (eds) Paternity and Fatherhood. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13816-6_3
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