The Power of Codification in Latin America: Simón Bolívar and the Code Napoléon

Abstract

Codification can be an effective means to centralize and to consolidate state power. The use of codification in this manner runs against the commonly perceived notion that it promotes republican and egalitarian values. As Simón Bolívar’s dictatorship quickly crumbled around him, he turned to codification based on the Code Napoléon as part of an attempt to unify Gran Colombia. Factors leading him to this undertaking and source were the need for legal reform, his emulation of Napoleon, his exposure to the works of Jeremy Bentham, and, speculatively, the influence of Andrés Bello. Bolívar’s attempt at codification was not to complete a successful and well-structured liberal reform agenda for his country, but rather to reassert central power and to create legal dependence on his regime. Amongst the political anarchy of the country and the disorganization, bad luck, and inaction of those charged with drafting the code, the project failed. Nonetheless, Bolívar’s hopes of appropriating the Code Napoléon demonstrate that it was an important source for Latin American thought on civil law several decades before Bello used it in drafting the Chilean Civil Code.