Abstract

From its very beginning, the grand reform of the French law of contract and obligations has been widely discussed in Italy. Italian codice civile represents a suitable yardstick to assess the innovations introduced into the "Code Napoléon", since French and Italian private laws largely share a common legal culture, which makes their comparison not only historically grounded, but also dogmatically fruitful. To a certain extent, moreover, the reform has enhanced the similarity between the "Code Napoléon" and the codice civile, although they still differ considerably. The article provides an overall assessment of the major changes in the architecture of the "Code Napoléon" and their impact on the basic concepts of contract and obligation. Some final considerations are devoted to the meaning of contemporary civil (re-)codifications in Europe and their expected impact on legal and social environments.