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8 Tul. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 83 (2000)
The Power of Codification in Latin America: Simon Bolivar and the Code Napoleon

handle is hein.journals/tulicl8 and id is 89 raw text is: The Power of Codification in Latin America: Sim6n Bolivar and the Code Napolon M.C. Mirow* Codification can be an effective means to centralize and to consolidate state power. The use of codification in this manner runs against the commonly perceived notion that it promotes republican and egalitarian values. As Sim6n Bolivar 's dictatorship quickly crumbled around him, he turned to codification based on the Code Napol6on as part of an attempt to unify Gran Colombia. Factors leading him to this undertaking and source were the need for legal reform, his emulation of Napoleon, his exposure to the works of Jeremy Bentham, and, speculatively, the influence of Andris Bello. Bolivar 's attempt at codification was not to complete a successful and well-structured liberal reform agenda for his country, but rather to reassert central power and to create legal dependence on his regime. Amongst the political anarchy of the country and the disorganization, bad luck, and inaction of those charged with drafting the code, the project failed. Nonetheless, Bolivar's hopes of appropriating the Code Napoleon demonstrate that it was an important source for Latin Amnerican thought on civil law several decades before Bello used it in drafting the Chilean Civil Code. I. CODIFICATION AS AGENT OF SOCIAL CHANGE AND AS AGENT OF POLITICAL POWER ..................................................................... 86 II. BOLiVAR'S IDEAS OF CODIFICATION BEFORE THE 1829 PROPOSAL ........................................................................................ 89 A. Bolivar ' View of the Colonial Law and the Need for Codification ......................................................................... 90 B. Napoleon as Model .............................................................. 95 C. Bentham Advances and Bolivar Scorn ............. 97 D. The Early Influence ofAndrJs Bello ....................................... 100 E. The Peruvian Commission of 1825: A First False Start? ........................................................................................ 101 F Bolivar ' Administration ofJustice as an Exercise of Political Power ........................................................................ 103 * Assistant Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law; Samuel I. Golieb Fellow in Legal History, New York University 1998-99; Visiting Professor of Law, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogoti 1995-98. The author thanks the members of the Legal History Colloquium, New York University for their helpful suggestions. Daniel Wade and the foreign law librarians at Yale helped greatly during the early stages of this project. Robert Abilez, Neda Bitar, Elizabeth Finkelstein, Thierry Guastavino, Jos6 Manuel Murillo, and Julidn Santos provided outstanding research assistance. The author gratefully acknowledges the following for the use of their collections: the Archivo General de la Naci6n, Bogoti; the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellin; the Biblioteca Nacional, Bogoti; the Cambridge University Library, U.K.; and Yale Law School. The author thanks the Beaumont Fund of Saint Louis University for research funding.

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