How did the Napoleonic Code treat agency and mandate?

The Napoleonic Code (1804) treated agency primarily as an aspect of mandate, deriving the power to act as an agent solely from that concept. In this framework, the French system largely identified authority with the mandate itself, a conceptual approach that differed from later German legal developments that distinguished between the two.12

Under this system, the validity of an agent's actions was closely tied to the principal-agent relationship. For instance, Article 2008 of the French Civil Code provided a specific rule regarding the death of a principal: it validated transactions performed by an agent who acted in ignorance of the principal's death, prioritizing the protection of concerned parties and the good faith of third parties over rigid doctrinal constraints.2

Generally, the Napoleonic Code and other early 19th-century continental codifications viewed agency through a conceptually systematic lens, emphasizing the necessity for an agent to act openly in the name of the principal to establish direct representation.1