The Code Napoleon is the French civil code enacted in 1804 and introduced into areas then under French control.
New Orleans, by that time, was under U.S. control, but the Louisiana state civil code of 1825 (still in effect, with modifications) was influenced by the French code.
The Napoleonic Code covered everything from civil rights to the property rights of spouses.
This area was of greatest interest to Stanley Kowalski in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire, set in New Orleans.
