1810 · Criminal codes

French Penal Code (Code pénal)

France

Napoleon's criminal code, which divides offences into three classes by seriousness and sets the penalties in advance in the text.

Why it matters

It spread across Europe and Latin America with the Napoleonic conquests and was copied in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. The principle that there is no crime and no punishment without a law runs through it.

Built on

No earlier text on this timeline is a documented model for it.

Went on to shape

1860 (in force 1862)

Indian Penal Code

British India

drew on the French and Louisiana models, alongside English law

1871

German Criminal Code (StGB)

German Empire

through the Prussian code of 1851, itself modelled on the French code

Countries in the Legal Families Atlas

France

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TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.