Cours De Code Civil

Cours De Code Civil by Jean Charles Florent Demolombe. This work offers a detailed historical and doctrinal examination of the Napoléon Code’s treatment of two parts of a decedent’s fortune when there are descendants or ascendants: the disposable portion (quotité disponible) and the reserved portion (réserve). It traces the origin of the reserve from Roman law through ancient French legal provinces and coutumières, explaining how exheredation and coutumières réserves evolved and how intermediate laws began transforming these ideas before the Napoléon Code. The Napoléon Code is presented as abolishing exérédation and coutumières réserves while preserving the protective aim of the légitime by converting it into a réserve within the succession ab intestat, defining the réserve as a mass of property that cannot be disposed of and the disponible as the freely distributable portion. The extract surveys key doctrinal disputes, notably three theories about how a renouncing child may claim: System 1 (claim only the quotité disponible), System 2 (reserve then disponible within the available total), and System 3 (both reserve and disponible in full). The author defends System 1 as the correct reading and critiques the others as incompatible with the Code’s text and structure. It also discusses Articles 913, 915, 917, 919, 923, 926 and related jurisprudence, the imputation framework (pré?iput, rapport), and the reduction of dispositions against donataires and légataires, illustrating how reduction interacts with fruits, avancement D’hoirie, and succession.