France: Parliament definitively repeals the Code Noir

The French Parliament definitively repealed the Code Noir on Tuesday, October 20, after a Senate vote. This royal text of 1685, which regulated slavery in the French colonies, is thus explicitly removed from French law, almost two centuries after the abolition of slavery..

A vote without opposition in the Senate

Meeting in session, the senators approved the repeal of the Code Noir. Of the 338 members who took part in the vote, 320 voted for and none against, according to the results published on the Senate website. This vote confirms that of the National Assembly, which unanimously adopted the bill last May. The 254 deputies present, from all political groups, then supported the text.

A royal edict of 1685 referred to

The Code Noir, promulgated during the reign of Louis XIV, set the rules applicable to slaves and masters in the French colonies. Its repeal concerns the royal edict of 1685 as well as the provisions resulting from it.

These rules no longer had legal effect, but had never been expressly withdrawn from the French legal order. The law adopted by Parliament therefore puts an end to this situation by formally removing these texts.

A primarily symbolic significance

This repeal comes almost 180 years after the abolition of slavery in the French colonies, in 1848. It marks a memorial and legal milestone by explicitly erasing from French law the provisions inherited from this system.

The unanimous vote of deputies in May, then the approval of the Senate without votes against, testify to a broad political agreement around this measure, the scope of which is above all symbolic, the texts concerned already being devoid of legal effects.

CGD