The Napoleonic Code is a reliable source for life in France in 1804 because it was an official document dealing only with civil law issues such as people, property and property acquisition, it did not address how laws and standards should be elaborated, because this is matter for a constitution.
However, the Napoleonic Code was not the first legal code to be established in a European nation, preceded by the Codex Maximilianeus bavaricus civilis (Kingdom of Bavaria, 1756), the Allgemeines Landrecht (Kingdom of Prussia, 1792) and the Western Galician Code ( Galicia, at the time part of Austria, 1797). Although not the first to be created, it is considered the first to achieve irrefutable success and to influence the legal systems of several other countries.