The code, Napoleon maintained, would abolish feudalism and make all Roman laws obsolete in a new spirit of unity, uniformity, and simplicity. In practice, Roman precedents substantially shaped the structure and content of the new code. The committee followed the structure of Justinian’s Institutes, and critical laws on private property were based on Roman ideas. Napoleon also emphasized the ‘reason’ on which his legal structure was based, a concept firmly associated with Roman law.
