THE EVOLUTION OF CODIFICATION IN THE CIVIL LAW LEGAL SYSTEMS: TOWARDS DECODIFICATION AND RECODIFICATION

THE EVOLUTION OF CODIFICATION IN THE CIVIL
LAW LEGAL SYSTEMS: TOWARDS DECODIFICATION
AND RECODIFICATION
MARIA LUISA MURILLO∗
Table of Contents
I. Introduction ...........................................................................1
II. The
Codification.....................................................................3
A. The Development of the Codification Process..................3

B. Codification in Latin America in the

19th Century...................................................................8
III. The Theory of Decodification...............................................10
IV. The Recodification Process ..................................................13

A. Preliminary considerations............................................13

B. The Re-codification Process in Latin America...............15
V. Conclusions ..........................................................................19
I. INTRODUCTION
The objective of this article is to consider the fundamental
transformation that has been taking place in the civil law
tradition1 due to the influence of the decodification and
recodification processes during the 20th century and their
perspective on the future. The article makes special reference to
the Latin American civil codes.

Codification of the 19th century was a unique socio-historical
phenomenon that emerged with the impulse of the French
Revolution and the rise of philosophical doctrines such as, ius-
naturalism, rationalism and the Enlightenment. However, by the
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∗Professor of Law, University of Piura-Perú, School of Law; Doctorate of Law,
University of Navarra-Spain, LL.M., University of Houston Law Center. The author was
a Fulbright Scholar during the Master Program at University of Houston Law Center
from August 1999 to May 2000. This article is based on the Seminar Paper delivered at
the “Comparative Law Seminar: Hemispheric Trade and Latin American Legal Systems”
directed by Pr. Frank Garcia at the University of Houston Law Center. The author
would like to thank Professor Frank Garcia for his significant support and valuable
contributions to this article.
1. The civil law and the common law traditions are the most highly influential legal
traditions in the contemporary world, and have been exported with greater or less effect to
other parts of the world. See JOHN MERRYMAN ET AL., THE CIVIL LAW TRADITION: EUROPE,
LATIN AMERICA AND EAST ASIA 3 (1994).

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turn of the 19th century, the “classical” Codification had been
subjected to new forces that gradually changed the legal and
social order with crucial consequences on the civil law tradition.
The dynamics of the legal change were symbolized by many
factors. Two of the more relevant being the decodification and the
recodification processes. The former relates to special legislation
away from the civil codes that causes fissures in their unit body,
and the latter refers to the partial and global reform to avoid civil
codes obsolescence.
In Latin America, the 19th century Codification in Central
and South America had some particular characteristics. The
codification began after the independence process from Spain and
Portugal in order to avoid uncertainty of the applicable law, to
stabilize the legal system, and to consolidate new national
regimes. In fact, drafting civil codes and constitutions was the
primary interest of jurists and legislators in the Latin American
new independent republics. Moreover, the French Civil Code2
was used as a “model” by several 19th century Latin American
civil codes. Subsequently, new legal approaches and doctrines
were used, such as Germanic3 and Italian civil legislation,4 among
other legal sources. Throughout the 20th century, the tendency
towards decodification and recodification in Latin America had
substantially transformed the content and structure of the civil
codes.5 Regardless of the dramatic impact of the decodification
process in the civil legal systems, however, the recodification
process seemed to have substantial momentum in Europe and
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2. For a discussion of the influence of the French Civil Code, see MARY ANN
GLENDON ET AL., COMPARATIVE LEGAL TRADITIONS 44-64 (1994); MERRYMAN ET AL.,
supra note 1, at 1149-62; JOSE CASTAN TOBEÑAS, I-1 DERECHO CIVIL ESPANOL COMUN Y
FORAL 217-21 (Editorial Reus ed. 1988); LUIS DIEZ PICAZO & ANTONIO GULLON, SISTEMA
DE DERECHO CIVIL 49 (7th ed. 1990).
3. For a discussion of the influence of the German Civil Code, see, e.g., MERRYMAN
ET AL., supra note 1, at 1163-73; Paolo Becchi, La Codificación Posible Hegel entre
Thibaut e Savigny, ANUARIO DE DERECHO CIVIL, Jan.–Mar. 1995, at 195-217; JOHN
MERRYMAN, LA TRADICIÓN JURIDICA-ROMANO CANONICA 59-71 (Fondo de Cultura
Económica ed. 1989) [hereinafter MERRYMAN II].
4. For a discussion of the influence of the Italian Civil Code, see Sandro Schipani,
Notta Introduttiva, in V STUDI SASSARESI (DIRITTO ROMANO, CODIFICAZIONI E UNITA DEL
SISTEMA GIURIDICO LATINOAMERICANO XIII-XIV (Giuffre et al. ed. 1981); LUIS DIEZ-
PICAZO Y PONCE DE LEON, Codificación, Descodificación y Recodificación, ANUARIO DE
DERECHO CIVIL, Apr.–Jun. 1992, at 473-84 [hereinafter DIEZ-PICAZO].
5. For a historical perspective of Codification after the independence process in Latin
America, see, e.g., JORGE BASADRE, HISTORIA DEL DERECHO PERUANO 323 (4th ed.,
Librería Studium 1988 (1937)); FERNANDO DE TRAZEGNIES, LA IDEA DE DERECHO EN EL
PERÚ REPUBLICANO DEL SIGLO XIX 151 (Fondo Editorial Pontificia Universidad Católica
del Perú 1980).

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EVOLUTION OF CODIFICATION
3

Latin America, indicating that it would influence the development
of the civil law tradition in the foreseeable future.
In summary, after an Introduction in Part I, this Article
includes in Part II a brief discussion of the Codification in the
19th century, with special references to Latin American civil
codes. In addition, Part III and Part IV contain an approach of
the decodification and recodification processes. In both cases, the
discussion focuses on the impact of this phenomenon in the
classical Codification and its development in the 20th century.
Specifically, the last part includes a comment about the
recodification process in Latin America.
II. THE CODIFICATION
A. The Development of the Codification Process

As many commentators have pointed out, the Codification was
a unique socio-historical phenomenon6 developed in the civil law
tradition during the 19th century. The Codes drafted during this
process differed radically from the compilations of the Roman,
Canonic law, or other codes.7 The root of the Codification was the
“intellectual revolution” that took place in Europe in the 18th
century with its principles and doctrines based on the
Enlightenment, Ius rationalism, secular Natural Law, Bourgeois
liberalism, and Nationalism. These ideas produced a new way of
thinking about society, law, economy, and state with decisive
consequences for the civil and common law tradition.8 This
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6. ANTONIO HERNANDEZ GIL, FORMALISMO, ANTIFORMALISMO Y CODIFICACION, 23
(1970); see also Manuel de la Puente y Lavalle, La Codificación, 30 THEMIS 29, 36 (1994);
CASTAN TOBEÑAS, supra note 2, at 214; Carlos Lasarte Alvarez, El Derecho Civil en la
Epoca Codificadora y Vicisitudes Posteriores, in II CENTENARIO DEL CÓDIGO CIVIL; 1105,
1106-62 (Editorial Centro de Estudios Ramon Areces ed. 1990); MERRYMAN II, supra note
3, at 59-71; Picazo, supra note 4 at 474-477; Angel M. Lopez y Lopez, Constitución,
Código y Leyes Especiales, Reflexiones sobre la Llamada Descodificación, in II
CENTENARIO DEL CÓDIGO CIVIL 1163, 1164-76 (Editorial Centro de Estudios Ramon
Areces ed., 1990); Juan Roca Guillamon, Codificación y Crisis del Derecho civil, in II
CENTENARIO DEL CÓDIGO CIVIL 1755, 1756-75 (Editorial Centro de Estudios Ramon
Areces ed. 1990).
7. There are substantial differences between Code and Compilation. The Digest of
Justinian, the Canonic codes, The 7 Partidas, and The Fueros do not have the
characteristics of the modern Codes produced as a result of the Codification process of
the 19th century. See CASTAN TOBEÑAS, supra note 2, at 211.
8. MERRYMAN ET AL., supra note 1, at 441-51; Guillamon, supra note 6, at 1755; ERIC
J. HOBSBAWN, LAS REVOLUCIONES BURGUESAS 77-129 (Ediciones Guadarrama ed. 1964);
MOLITOR-SCHOLOSSER, PERFILES DE LA NUEVA HISTORIA DEL DERECHO PRIVADO 61
(trans. Martinez Sarrión 1980). For the development of naturalism in connection with
the relationship between justice and law which also applies to the question of the
relationship between justice and international economic law, see Frank Garcia, Trade

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development deeply influenced western nations, producing
dramatic events, specifically, the American and French
Revolution, the Italian Risorgimento, the wars of independence in
Central and South America, and the unification of Germany,
among others.

In reference to civil law tradition countries, this philosophical
and political phenomenon had a significant effect in the
development of public and private law. In particular, Wieacker
explained that: “the Codification was not focused on gathering,
compiling, improving or reforming the existent scientific or pre-
scientific law - as the former German reforms or Roman and
Spanish compilations-, but planning a better society by means of
new systematic and creative law.”9 In fact, the relation Civil
Code/Constitution, with the primacy of the private law, supported
the legal framework of the 19th century bourgeois liberal
society.10 According to John Merryman, one of the most
important aims of the French Revolution was to unify private law,
and as a result, “the spirit of the intellectual revolution led the
French to promulgate five codes: Les Cinq Codes. These include –
after the famous Code Civil des Français (1804) – Le Code de
Procédure Civile (1806), Le Code de Commerce (1807), Le Code
Pénal (1810) and Le Code d’Instruction Criminelle (1810).”11 Of
the five codes, the Code Civil is traditionally well known for its
fundamental role in consolidating the modern Codification and its
vast influence around the world. The French Civil Code’s legal
sources include, among others, the coutûmes of Paris, the Roman
Law studies elaborated by French jurists Domat and Pothier, and
the law of the Revolution.12
Since the ideology of the French Codification reflected the
influence of the French Revolution, one of its principal objectives
was to repeal entirely the old legal system. In fact, the
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and Justice: Linking the Trade Linkage Debates, 19 U. PA. J. INT’L BUS. L. 391, 404-11
(1998).
9. F. WIEACKER, HISTORIA DEL DERECHO PRIVADO DE LA EDAD MODERNA 292
(Francisco Fernández Jardón trans., Aguilar 1957 (1908)). See JOSE LUIS DE LOS MOZOS,
Prologue to I EL CODIGO CIVIL DEL SIGLO XXI 11, 25 (Comisión de Reforma de Códigos
del Congreso de la República del Perú ed. 2000); Alvarez, supra note 6, at 1106.
10. The relation between Civil Code/Constitution under the bourgeois-liberal
revolution in the 19th century was the framework of the legal system. In the words of
Lopez y Lopez: “En una visión de conjunto, el Estado Liberal confiaba el andamiaje
jurídico de la sociedad civil al Derecho privado, en rigor a los Códigos civiles. No tenía
necesidad de rigidizar los valores profundos, que estaba llamado a representar, en las
Cartas Constitucionales, por entenderlos suficientemente amparados por los Códigos.”
Lopez y Lopez, supra note 6, at 1165.
11. MERRYMAN ET AL., supra note 1, at 453.
12. CASTAN TOBEÑAS, supra note 2, at 211.

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EVOLUTION OF CODIFICATION
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institutions of the Ancien Régime,13 absolute monarchy,
interlocking powers of the King, nobility, feudalism, territorial
division, courts system and others, were eliminated. In its place,
by means of the Codes, a new legal system was institutionalized.
The legal system was based on principles of the French
Revolution and the Enlightened Society. The primacy of the
statute law incorporated the equality under the law, individual
freedom, private property, liberty of contract and separation of
powers to prevent intrusion of the judiciary into areas reserved to
the legislative and executive.14

According to the principles of ius rationalism, the Codification
focused on systematizing and simplifying the legal system while
avoiding the complex ius commune framework.15 As a
consequence, it was necessary to draft codes without gaps and
with coherent, clear, and complete legal rules. Thus, as far as
accessibility to the people was concerned, the French Civil Code
represented the model of coherence and simplicity.16 Jean-
Etienne-Marie Portalis, one of the most influential drafters of the
French Civil Code, in his Discours Préliminare, remarked that the
provisions of the Civil Code were elaborated as principles or
maxims to be developed and applied by judges or jurists, although
during the post-evolutionary period, the tendency was to deny the
judiciary lawmaking power.17
In addition to France, in the beginning of the 19th century,
the tendency towards Codification caused a widespread interest
in Germany and others parts of Europe and Latin America. In
1814, Thibaut, the eminent German law professor, proposed that
Germany adopt the Codification to unify the entire legal system,
thus mirroring the simplicity and coherence of the French civil
code, which was the best model to follow.18 However, Savigny and
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13. About the Ancien Régime and other social and economic aspects before the
revolution, see HOBSBAWN, supra note 8, at 25-45.
14. See JEAN-ETIENNE MARIE PORTALIS, DISCURSO PRELIMINAR DEL PROYECTO DE
CODIGO CIVIL FRANCES 27-113 (Manuel de Rivacoba y Rivacoba trans., Edeval ed. 1978);
Lopez y Lopez, supra note 6, at 1163-64; Diez-Picazo, supra note 4, at 474-78.
15. MERRYMAN ET AL., supra note 1, at 449-51.
16. See Diez-Picazo, supra note 4, at 478; MERRYMAN ET AL., supra note 1, at 450
(stating that in some aspects – rationalist ideals of completeness, simplicity, non-
technical – the Civil Code of France became a “revolutionary utopia” facing the new
contemporary social and economic changes).
17. PORTALIS, supra note 14, at 36.
18. See, e.g., Becchi, supra note 3, at 195; DE LOS MOZOS, DERECHO CIVIL, METODO,
SISTEMAS Y CATEGORIES JURIDICAS 116-17 (Editorial Civitas eds., 1st ed. 1988); De Los
Mozos, La “Cultura Jurídica” del Código Civil: Una Aproximación a Su Estudio, in I
CENTENARIO DEL CÓDIGO CIVIL 663, 673 (Editorial Centro de Estudios Ramon Areces ed.
1990).

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the Historical school opposed the Thibaut proposal on the basis of
the historical dimension of the law as an expression of “the
common consciousness of the people”.19 The Codification was
postponed by several decades. After the German political
unification in 1871 several German codes were enacted. The
German civil code of 1896 (effective in 1900) had a profound
impact on modern Codification.20 The differences between French
and German civil codes are relevant. The former is based on the
principles of rationalism and ius-naturalism, whereas the latter is
scientific, technical, and heavily influenced by the Pandectist
system.21

There is no doubt that the traditional image of the “classical”
19th century codification has changed in contemporary civil law
countries. It has become clear in the 20th century that new
social, economic, and political developments demanded a shift in
emphasis from private law to both public and regulatory law.
According to Glendon, “the dynamics of the legal change have
worked primarily through a movement away from the civil codes
(via special legislation and judicial construction), and through
code revision, constitutional law, harmonization of law within the
European Community, and the acceptance through treaties and
conventions of a variety of supranational legal norms.”22 In
general terms, civil law and common law comparativist scholars23
have asserted that a fundamental transformation has taken place
in the civil law tradition which is symbolized by the tendencies
toward the “decodification,”24 “constitutionalization,”25
“supranational legislation,”26 and “re-codification.”27
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19. Merryman explained the Savigny proposal regarding the codification process in
Germany in the following terms:

Savigny’s principal argument against Codification was that his own age
lacked the ability necessary to do it properly. In his view, a proper code
had to be an organic system based on the true fundamental principles
of the law as they had developed over time. A thorough understanding
of these principles was an indispensable prerequisite to codification.
Savigny found such mastery of principles lacking among his
contemporaries and feared that a codification in his time would
therefore do more harm than good to perpetuating misunderstandings.
Thus, he urged his contemporaries to study the historical evolution of
the basic principles first and to turn to codification- if at all- later.

MERRYMAN ET AL., supra note 1, at 476.
20. CASTAN TOBEÑAS, supra note 2, at 224-28.
21. See DIEZ-PICAZO & GULLON, supra note 2, at 51.
22. GLENDON ET AL., supra note 2, at 62.
23. Id.; MERRYMAN ET AL., supra note 1, at 1241.
24. Since the Italian scholar Natalino Irti published his article L’età della
decodificazione (1978), the theory of decodification had a significant influence in the civil

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EVOLUTION OF CODIFICATION
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In dealing with a comparativist legal analysis, it is possible to
find that traditional uncodified legal systems have codified
particular legal issues. On the other hand, codified systems used
to have uncodified legal subjects. According to Schlesinger, there
is no highly developed legal system in existence today that is
either wholly codified or wholly uncodified.28

A few examples might help clarify this issue. In France, the
evolution of the law of torts is an example of judge-made law in
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law tradition. See e.g., Natalino Irti, L’età della decodificazione, in DIRITTO E SOCIETA
613 (1978); NATALINO IRTI, LA EDAD DE LA DESCODIFICACION (Editorial Bosh ed., 1992);
Adriano De Cupis, A Proposito di Codice e di Decodificazione, 25 RIVISTA DE DIRITTO
CIVILE 2, 47 (Guifrè ed. 1979); Rodolfo Sacco, Codificare: Modo Superato de Legifere?, 29
RIVISTA DI DIRITTO CIVILE 2, 117 (1983).
25. According to Merryman, the movement towards “constitutionalism” in civil law
tradition displays a number of common features, which include:

the new constitutionalism has prominently sought to guarantee and to
expand individual rights: rights to civil and criminal due process of law;
to equality; to freedom of association, movement, expression, and belief;
and to education, work, health care, and economic security. The “old”
individual rights that were an objective of the revolution and that
received their ‘constitutional’ protection in the civil codes- rights of
personality, property, and liberty of contract- have to a large extent
been achieved and solidified in the work of ordinary courts quietly
applying the traditional sources and methods of law. The constitutions
are the sites of the new individual rights, and the clash of
constitutional litigation is the medium of their definition and
enforcement. The rise of constitutionalism is in this sense an
additional form of decodification: the civil codes no longer serve a
constitutional function.

MERRYMAN, supra note 1, at 1245. In the same vein, see Lopez y Lopez, supra note 6, at
1170.
26. For some examples of the influence of the European Union (EU) in the state
members’ national legislation, see RALPH H. FOLSON ET AL., INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
TRANSACTIONS: A PROBLEM-ORIENTED COURSEBOOK 1324 (West Group ed. 1999). As to
Latin America regional and sub-regional integration, see, e.g., Frank J. Garcia,
“Americas Agreements” - An Interim Stage in Building the Free Trade Area of the
Americas, 35 COLUM. J. TRANSNAT’L L. 63, 65-68 (1997); G. POPE ATKINS, LATIN
AMERICAN INTEGRATON 169-87 (1995); INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK, THE LATIN
AMERICAN INTEGRATION PROCESS IN 1988, 1989, 1990, 3-12 (1992); Julio J. Nogues &
Rosalinda Quintanilla, Latin America’s Integration and the Multilateral Trading System,
in NEW DIMENSIONS IN REGIONAL INTEGRATION 28-31 (Jaime De Melo & Arvind
Panagariya eds. 1993).
27. See, e.g., DIEZ-PICAZO, supra note 4, at 474-77; DE LOS MOZOS, supra note 9, at
11-25.
28. See FORMATION OF CONTRACTS: A STUDY OF THE COMMON CORE OF LEGAL
SYSTEMS 51 (Rudolf B. Schlesinger ed., 1968); MERRYMAN II, supra note 3, at 60-61; Dale
Beck Furnish, Fuentes del Derecho en Los Estados Unidos: La Muerte del Derecho
Consuetudinario, Las Fuentes Escritas en la Edad del Derecho Positivo, y el Papel y
Efecto de los Restatements of the Law, 13 IUS ET VERITAS 143, 161 (1996).

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the civil law tradition.29 Thus, the issue of formation of contracts
in French law is composed entirely of case law since the Civil
Code does not have any provisions to solve offer and acceptance
problems.30 Conversely, the United States, despite its common
law tradition, has a substantial segment of its law of contracts
that is currently regulated under the provisions of the Uniform
Commercial Code (U.C.C.). American contract law has been
greatly influenced by the provisions of the U.C.C. According to
Llewellyn, its principal original drafter, Article 2 of the U.C.C.
contains not only rules applying specifically to goods transactions
(such rules governing shipment, inspection, and the risk of loss),
but also provisions susceptible to broader application, such as the
Code’s definition of “good faith” or its prescription of
“unconscionability.”31 However, civil and common law
comparativist scholars pointed out that there are substantial
differences between the role and function of the codes under civil
or common law tradition including legal systems, ideology,
authorities, and enforcement.32
B. Codification in Latin America in the 19th Century

The most persuasive reasons offered by scholars to explain the
19th century codification in Latin America have been the need to
avoid uncertainty of the applicable law, to stabilize the legal
system, and to consolidate new national regimes.33 In fact, after
the independence, drafting civil codes and constitutions was the
primary interest of jurists and legislators in the Latin American
new independent republics.34
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29. See Parviz Owsia, The Notion and Function of Offer and Acceptance Under
French and English Law, 66 TUL. L. REV. 871 (1992); MERRYMAN ET AL., supra note 1, at
1242.
30. Id.
31. See E. ALLAN FARNSWORTH, CONTRACTS 29-32 (2d ed., 1990); NEW YORK
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW, FUNDAMENTALS OF AMERICAN LAW 201-10 (Alan B. Morrison
ed. 1996).
32. See MERRYMAN, supra note 1, at 60-62; Furnish, supra note 28, at 160-61.
33. J.M. Castán Vázquez, La Influencia de la Literatura Juridica Española en las
Codificaciones Americanas, Address before the Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y
Legislacion (Jan. 23, 1984) (Spain) [hereinafter Vázquez Address]; J.M. Castán Vázquez,
El Sistema de Derecho Privado Iberoamericano, in IV Estudios de Derecho Civil en Honor
del Profesor CASTAN TOBEÑAS 157-88 (Ediciones Universidad de Navarra ed., 1969)
[hereinafter Derecho Privado].
34. P. Catalano, Sistema Jurídico, Sistema Jurídico Latino-Americano y Derecho
Romano, REVISTA GENERAL DE LEGISLACION Y JURISPRUDENCIA, Sept. 1982; Alejandro
Guzmán Brito, Puntos de Orientación para el Estudio Histórico de la Fijación y
Codificación del Derecho en Iberoamérica, REVISTA GENERAL DE LEGISLACION Y
JURISPRUDENCIA (1983); J.L. De Los Mozos, Perspectivas y Método para la Comparación

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The French Civil Code enacted in 1804 was the “model” to
draft Latin American civil codes in the early 19th century.35
Since it had Roman law influence, its adoption did not require an
entire break from the preexisting Spanish and Portuguese
colonial legal structure. Moreover, the 19th century codification
served to consolidate the Roman law introduced in Latin America
by Spanish and Portuguese colonial legislation.36 In general, the
language and concepts of the French codes were clear and
familiar for Latin American countries because of their affinities
with the legal institutions that were introduced in Latin America
during the colonial period.37

In the 19th century, the most relevant and influential Latin
American civil codes were drafted by conspicuous drafters: Andres
Bello (Chilean Civil Code),38 Velez Sarsfield (Argentinian Civil
Code)39 and Teixeira de Freitas (draft of Brazilean Civil Code).40
As an illustration, the Chilean civil code drafted by Andres Bello
was adopted virtually in its entirety in Ecuador (Civil Code of
1860) and Colombia (Civil Code of 1873), while Argentina,
Paraguay, Uruguay, Honduras, Venezuela, El Salvador and
Nicaragua adopted specific provisions in their own civil codes.41
Although highly influenced by the French Civil Code, most
Latin American civil codes enacted in the 19th century adopted a
variety of other legal sources. From this perspective, the sources
most frequently cited as contributing to the formation of the Civil
Codes in Latin America are the following:

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Jurídica en Relación con el Derecho Privado Iberoamericano, 60 REVISTA DE DERECHO
PRIVADO 777 (1976) [hereinafter Perspectivas].
35. The early 19th century Latin American civil codes were adopted as follows: Haiti
(1825), Oaxaca (México) (1827-1828), Bolivia (1831), Dominican Republic (1844), Perú
(1852) and Chile (1855). CASTAN TOBEÑAS, supra note 2, at 221.
36. Vázquez Address, supra note 33, at 100-10.
37. Id.
38. See A. GUZMAN BRITO, I ANDRES BELLO CODIFICADOR: HISTORIA DE LA FIJACION
Y CODIFICACION DEL DERECHO CIVIL EN CHILE 115 (Ediciones Universidad de Chile ed.,
1982); J.M. Castán Vázquez, El Humanismo de Andrés Bello y su Proyección en el
Derecho Civil Iberoamericano, 5 CENTENARIO REVISTA CRITICA DE DERECHO
INMOBILIARIO 653, 666 (1992); FERNANDO MURILLO RUBIERA, ANDRES BELLO: HISTORIA
DE UNA VIDA Y DE UNA OBRA 189-437 (La Casa de Bello ed., 1986).
39. See CASTAN TOBEÑAS, supra note 2, at 223.
40.

Sandro S. Schipani, Dal Diritto Romano alle Codificazioni Latino-
ameriamericane: L’opera di A. Teixeira de Freitas, in V STUDI SASSERSI (DIRITTO
ROMANNO, CODIFICAZIONI E UNITA DEL SISTEMA GIURIDICO LATINOAMERICANO XIII-XIV
(Giuffre et al. ed., 1981); CASTAN TOBEÑAS, supra note 2, at 230.
41. GUZMAN BRITO, supra note 38, at 463.

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Roman Law which is the fundamental source of all
the “Roman-Germanic family” or civil law
tradition.42

Spanish and Portuguese laws enforced in Latin
America before civil codes were drafted. Among
these were the “Novísima Recopilación,” “Las Siete
Partidas,” and the “Fuero Real.”43

The French Civil Code of 1804, known as the
Napoleonic Code.44

Additionally, other civil codes enforced at the time of civil
codes drafting in Latin America include the Civil Codes of
Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Sardinia, Austria, Prussia and the
two Sicilies influenced the formation of the Civil Codes in Latin
America.45 For instance, the Brazil Civil Code of 1917 had a
remarkable influence of the German Civil Code, and Cuba
adopted almost entirely the Spanish Civil Code of 1889.46 Civil
law treaties and studies written by prestigious French, German
and Spanish scholars in the 19th century: Pothier, Domat,
Troplon, Zacharie, Demolombe, Merlin, Escriche, Molina, Garcia
Goyena and Savigny, among others also contributed to some
extent.47

Over the 20th century, the obsolescence in various degrees of
the early 19th century codes motivated a tendency towards
legislative reforms in Latin America. This phenomenon follows
the general tendency in civil law systems toward the partial or
global reforms of codes to adapt socio-economic and legislative
changes.
III. THE THEORY OF DECODIFICATION
Since the Italian scholar Natalio Irti published his article
L’età della decodificazione (1978), several commentators have
analyzed the process of decodification under different perspectives
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42. MERRYMAN ET AL., supra note 1, at 473.
43. Vázquez Address, supra note 33, at 100-10.
44. CASTAN TOBEÑAS, supra note 2, at 217-24.
45. MERRYMAN ET AL., supra note 1, at 473.
46. CASTAN TOBEÑAS, supra note 2, at 230-32.
47. See MERRYMAN ET AL., supra note 1, at 472-73; Vázquez Address, supra note 33,
at 100-10.

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