1869 (in force 1871) · Civil codes

Argentine Civil Code (Vélez Sársfield)

Argentina

The civil code of Argentina written by Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield, which stayed in force, with many amendments, until 2015.

Why it matters

It was copied by Paraguay and used as a model in Latin America. It shows how Latin American jurists put together codes from several sources.

Built on

1860 to 1865

Teixeira de Freitas's Esboço (draft civil code)

Brazil

took many articles from Freitas's draft

1804

French Civil Code (Napoleonic Code)

France

used the French code as a main source

1855 (in force 1857)

Chilean Civil Code (Andrés Bello)

Chile

also drew on the Chilean code

Went on to shape

No later text on this timeline is recorded as built on it.

Countries in the Legal Families Atlas

Argentina

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TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.