BICENTENNIAL OF THE LOUISIANA CIVIL CODE
In 2008, the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center commemorated the Bicentennial of the Louisiana Civil Code, marking the confirmed survival of the civil law in Louisiana after the 1803 Purchase to France.
The year 1808 is considered the birth date of the Louisiana Civil Codes because it is that of A Digest of the Civil Laws in Force in the Territory of Orleans, frequently referred to as the Louisiana Civil Code of 1808. It is a digest of the Spanish civil laws then in force, modeled in form on the Code civil des Français of 1804 and its Projet de l’An VIII (1800). It was amended to become the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, itself superseded by the Louisiana Civil Code of 1870 presently in force. The Louisiana State Law Institute, created in 1938, prepared substantial revisions of the Civil Code, keeping it up to date.
The Digest of 1808 was the first civil code-like legislation to be drafted anywhere in the world, in the wake of the Napoleonic codification. It still has a significant influence not only in the United States but also in Quebec, Latin America, and Spain.
