Changes

==Origins of the Civil Code and forces behind codification==

The main instigator for the promulgation of the Civil Code was Napoleon Bonaparte, the first Consul of France. However, the demand for codification and clarification itself precede the Napoleonic era. Diversity of laws was the dominant characteristic of the pre-revolutionary legal order. Roman law governed in the south of France, whereas in the northern provinces<ref>including Paris</ref> a customary law had developed and dominated, based largely on feudal Frankish and Germanic institutions. Marriage and family were entirely under the control of the Roman Catholic Church and its cannon law. In addition, a wide range of matters were governed by royal decrees and ordinances as well as by case law.