1789 · Charters, declarations and treaties

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

France

A revolutionary statement that all people are born free and equal in rights, and that law is the expression of the general will.

Why it matters

It is a founding text of modern human-rights law, and it is still part of the French constitutional order.

Built on

No earlier text on this timeline is a documented model for it.

Went on to shape

1804

French Civil Code (Napoleonic Code)

France

built on the equality and property rights of the Revolution

1948

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

United Nations

echoes its language of equality and dignity

Counting texts that borrowed from the texts that borrowed from this one, 25 later texts on this timeline trace back to it.

Countries in the Legal Families Atlas

France

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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.