SUMMARY

Belgian civil status was created by the Civil Code passed between 1801 and 1804 (promulgated on 31 March 1804) and renamed the Napoleonic Code in 1807. This code consists of three books: 1° on persons. 2° property and the various modifications of ownership. 3° on the different ways of acquiring property.

The Code incorporates a number of the achievements of the French Revolution, including equality between citizens, the secular nature of the State, freedom of conscience, freedom to work, equality for children, testamentary freedoms, the possibility of divorce and women's rights.

It had a lasting influence on Belgian civil law in the XIXᵉ and XXᵉ centuries. It was under the French regime that the various judicial codes from which the Belgian Civil Code drew inspiration were published.

Find out more about marriage in Belgium in this publication.

AUTHOR

Yves Heraly. He was born in 1948 in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 1990 he began researching the Heraly family genealogy, which originated in Walloon Brabant. Former treasurer of the Cercle d'histoire, d'archéologie et de généalogie de Wavre et du Brabant Wallon. In 1998 he founded the GéniWal association (Généalogie Wallonie Informatique), of which he is chairman.