The Politics of European Codification: A History of the Unification of Law in France, Prussia, the Austrian Monarchy and the Netherlands

A European codification of private law is in the air. The European Parliament decided in favour of it, the European Commission supports it and many legal scholars are already working on it. The question is: why? This book provides an answer by looking into the history of codification. It focuses on the arguments that were used for the introduction of some modern codifications, such as the French Code civil and the Austrian ABGB. It shows that the realisation of these codifications was closely linked to the process of the formation of states. Since uniformity was thought to be of crucial importance to the formation of a modern state, it was only logical that the unification of law became an important goal, too. Codification was an excellent means to achieve this goal. After all, the most essential feature of these modern codifications was the establishment of the monopoly of the central government on the making of law within its own territory. This historical enquiry thus increases our understanding of the political nature of the endeavours to realise an European codification of private law.