The intention behind the Napoleonic Code was to reform the
French legal system in accordance with the principles of the
French Revolution. Before the Code, France did not have a single
set of laws. The vestiges of feudalism were abolished, and the
many different legal systems used in different parts of France
were replaced by a single legal code. Developing out of the
various coutumes of France notably the Coutume de Paris this
recodification process that had first started by Justinian in
the Byzantine Empire with the establishment of codified roman
law. The development of the Code was a fundamental change in the
nature of the civil law legal system. The development of these
codes made the law much clearer, they were different in each
country, and thus destroyed the superficial legal unity of
Continental Europe which had existed in the Middle Ages. The
term "Napoleonic code" is also used to refer to legal codes of
other jurisdictions that are derived from the French Code
Napoleon, especially the civil codes o