[citation needed] It was, however, the first modern legal code to be adopted with a pan-European scope, and it strongly influenced the law of many of the countries formed during and after the Napoleonic Wars.

"[11] However, it was the National Convention in 1793 which established a special commission headed by Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès to oversee the drafting process.

[12] His drafts of 1793 (for which Cambacérès had been given a one month deadline), 1794, and 1796 were all rejected by a National Convention and the French Directory of the time was more preoccupied with the turmoil resulting from various wars and strife with other European powers.

[17] In response, Napoleon announced on 2 January 1802 that he was suspending all projects, effectively closing the assemblies' sessions; simultaneously, he went to the Sénat conservateur to berate its members.

It also superseded the former conflict between royal legislative power and, particularly in the final years before the Revolution, protests by judges representing views and privileges of the social classes to which they belonged.

[citation needed] The preliminary article of the code established certain important provisions regarding the rule of law.

With regard to family, the code established the supremacy of the husband over his wife and children, the status quo in Europe at the time.

In 1791, Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau presented a new criminal code to the National Constituent Assembly.

[22] He explained that it outlawed only "true crimes", and not "phony offences created by superstition, feudalism, the tax system, and [royal] despotism".

The new penal code did not mention blasphemy, heresy, sacrilege, witchcraft, incest, or homosexuality, which led to these former offences being swiftly decriminalised.

The French Revolution's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen enunciated the presumption of innocence until found guilty.

The possibility of lengthy remand periods was one criticism, particularly voiced in common law countries, of the Napoleonic Code and its de facto presumption of guilt.

The rules governing court proceedings gave significant power to the prosecution; however, criminal justice in European countries in those days tended to repression.

[29] These editions consist of thorough annotations, with references to other codes, relevant statutes, judicial decisions (even if unpublished), and international instruments.

[7][2][34] In the German regions on the west bank of the Rhine (Rhenish Palatinate and Prussian Rhine Province), the former Duchy of Berg and the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Napoleonic Code was influential until the introduction of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch in 1900 as the first common civil code for the entire German Empire.

[35] A number of factors have been shown by Arvind and Stirton to have had a determinative role in the decision by the German states to receive the code, including territorial concerns, Napoleonic control and influence, the strength of central state institutions, a feudal economy and society, rule by liberal (enlightened despotic) rulers, nativism among the governing elites, and popular anti-French sentiment.

But the state of Louisiana is unique in having a strong influence from French and Spanish legal traditions on its civil code.

[42] The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants states control of laws not specifically given to the federal government, so Louisiana's legal system retains many French elements.