The Code Noir repealed and linked to crimes against humanity

France has repealed the “Code Noir.” LAW No. 2026-1015 of November 2, 2026, regarding the repeal of the “Code Noir,” signed on November 2 and published in JORF No. 0257 of November 3, 2026, under NOR: MOMO2613546L, erases the royal edict of March 1685 and all resulting texts.

The text stems from bill No. 672 (2025-2026), adopted by the National Assembly following the initiation of the accelerated procedure. In the Senate, the committee on constitutional laws, legislation, universal suffrage, Rules and general administration appointed Mr. Louis Vogel as rapporteur in early October 2026; his report (No. 55, 2026-2027) and the committee’s text (No. 56, 2026-2027) were examined on October 14, 16, 17, and 20, 2026. The final provision consists of only three articles.

The 1685 Edict and all its extensions, repealed

Article 1 explicitly targets the “Code Noir” or “the King’s edict on the slaves of the islands of America of March 1685.” The repeal does not stop at the original text: according to the letter of the law, it covers “all provisions of any nature taken for its application, its adaptation, or its extension to other territories.”

The scope thus closed is therefore threefold:

• the founding text of March 1685;
• the provisions taken for its application;
• those taken for its adaptation or its extension to other territories.

This wording prevents an implementing text, a local regulation, or a subsequent adaptation from surviving the repeal of the initial edict.

The link to crimes against humanity

Article 2 carries the memorial dimension of the text. The French Republic therein “recognizes that all texts that institutionalized the reduction of human beings to the status of movable property and organized their deportation, their exploitation, as well as the violence exercised against them, are inseparable from the crime against humanity constituted by trafficking and slavery.”

The law expressly links this recognition to a legislative precedent: Law No. 2001-434 of May 21, 2001, tending toward the recognition of trafficking and slavery as a crime against humanity. The 2026 text therefore does not create a new qualification; it declares that the texts that organized the crime against humanity, and not only the practices, are inseparable from it.

A report to Parliament in one year

Article 3 establishes a reporting obligation, to be submitted by the Government to Parliament within one year of promulgation. This document must list the provisions derived from colonial law still in force in overseas territories and analyze their contemporary effects.

The specifications are precise:

• the analysis of the consequences of the application of colonial law on the economic, social, cultural, and environmental structuring and development of these territories;
• the examination of its effects on the processes of discrimination and racism within French society;
• the study of the lasting consequences of this legacy on the descendants of enslaved people;
• the evaluation of the place given to the history of slavery, the slave trade, and their abolition in school curricula;
• proposals aimed at strengthening this teaching throughout the national territory and developing sites of memory and historical research.

The scope of the text is twofold. On a legal level, it settles the formal existence of a colonial corpus still cited as being in force and organizes an inventory of its survivals overseas. On a memorial level, it enshrines in law an explicit link between the texts and the crime against humanity, which provides a legislative foundation for debates on the teaching of the history of slavery and on sites of memory.

Source: JORF n° 0257 of November 3, 2026 — LAW n° 2026-1015 of November 2, 2026 repealing the “Code Noir”, NOR: MOMO2613546L.