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How did civil procedure change after the French Revolution?

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Mosaic portrait of Emperor Justinian I with a jeweled crown and halo, from the 6th-century Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. — Civil law Justinian I, detail of a 6th-century mosaic at the Church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy.

Following the French Revolution, the transformation of civil procedure was characterized by an initial period of institutional upheaval followed by a return to codification under Napoleon.

While the National Assembly dismantled the ancien régime judicial system in 1790 and established new courts, it did not enact lasting reforms in civil procedure. Instead, the revolutionaries focused on making justice more accessible by encouraging arbitration and mediation to avoid costly litigation.12

Lasting procedural change arrived with the Napoleonic Code of Civil Procedure in 1806. This code sought to restore normality by blending pre-Revolutionary practices—relying heavily on the 1667 Code Louis—with procedures developed during the Revolution.1

Key shifts during this era included:
* Judicial Structure: The replacement of the Parlements with a unified court system designed to apply statutes rather than create general rules.3
* Accessibility: The introduction of justices of the peace at the canton level to decentralize and simplify local justice.2
* Scope of Reform: Unlike criminal law, which saw the introduction of juries, civil procedure remained largely focused on traditional, written-based processes until much later reforms in the 20th century, which eventually adopted the oral presentation principles of the Austrian model.1