French Law and the French Judicial System. as emperors go, he was in his clay very much of a Napoleon of a smaller cast. The sources of the codified law of France were: (a) the ancient laws of the realm there tofore in force, consisting of local customs, and written or Roman law: (b) such legisla tive enactments of the National Assembly,
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law constitutes the foundation and ground works of the structure, the other constituent elements indicated above being merely sub ordinate or ancillary. Napoleon saw clearly and imperiously insisted that nothing good could come from a blind glorification or magnification of the local and barbarous
INTERIOR OK SAINTE-CHAPELl.K.1
the Legislative Assembly and the Conven tion, and such of the decrees of the Consuls and of the Directory between June 17, 1789, and March 15, 1803, as were thought by Na poleon and his codifiers to be of permanent value, and (c) such general laws as have been enacted since March 21, 1804. The Roman
customs of the realm, and the codifiers thus wisely subordinated them to the order, meth od and system of the Roman law. Accord ingly they substantially enacted the Roman 1 Sainte-Cliapcllc was erected in 1245-48, during the reign of St. Louis. The "Mass of the Holy Ghost" is celebrated here annually on the re-opening of the courts after the autumn vacation.
