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Code Henry

The first comprehensive legal code of the Kingdom of Haiti, promulgated by King Henry Christophe on February 20, 1812 — a sovereign act of juridical self-determination just eight years after the world's only successful slave revolution produced an independent nation. This digital edition presents the complete Code in 3,004 articles spanning 8 laws and 67 titres — from the Loi Civile's 1,535 articles on personhood, marriage, property, and succession, to the Loi sur la Procédure Criminelle's 421 articles on investigation, confrontation, and royal clemency. Every article has been hand-extracted from 19th-century OCR, corrected, translated into English, and annotated with plain-language life lessons and scholarly notes. Browse in French, English, or Kreyòl Ayisyen. 3,004 articles · 8 laws · 3 languages · 213 years restored

3,004 articles in the Code Henry

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972
Article 972 Civil Law · Dispositions Générales
Family Law
Before contracting marriage before the officer responsible for keeping the registers that certify its authenticity, and before it is celebrated by the parish priest, the...
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Before contracting marriage before the officer responsible for keeping the registers that certify its authenticity, and before it is celebrated by the parish priest, the spouses must have their matrimonial agreements drawn up before a notary.

The officer responsible for the registers is required to have the marriage contract presented to him before pronouncing the union of the future spouses, and to note it in the act, on pain of dismissal.

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973
Article 973 Civil Law · Dispositions Générales
Family Law
The spouses are permitted to agree to marry under the community property regime or without community, and to stipulate in their contract whatever agreement they...
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The spouses are permitted to agree to marry under the community property regime or without community, and to stipulate in their contract whatever agreement they deem suitable, provided they may not derogate from or modify the prohibitive provisions of the law; likewise after the marriage, they may not increase or diminish their matrimonial agreements, on pain of nullity.

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974
Article 974 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
Community of property between spouses is established by operation of law; and to derogate from it, there must be an express clause in the contract.
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Community of property between spouses is established by operation of law; and to derogate from it, there must be an express clause in the contract.

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975
Article 975 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
The community is composed of: 1°. All the movable property that the spouses possess on the day of the celebration of the marriage, unless otherwise...
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The community is composed of:

1°. All the movable property that the spouses possess on the day of the celebration of the marriage, unless otherwise agreed;

2°. All fruits, revenues, interest, and arrears of whatever nature received during the marriage, from property belonging to the spouses;

3°. Finally, everything they shall have acquired during the marriage.

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976
Article 976 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
The spouses may nevertheless stipulate that only a portion of their movable property, such as one-third or one-quarter, shall compose the community.
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The spouses may nevertheless stipulate that only a portion of their movable property, such as one-third or one-quarter, shall compose the community.

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977
Article 977 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
Nothing that falls to the spouses during the marriage by succession or donation shall enter the community, whether movable or immovable property, which must be...
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Nothing that falls to the spouses during the marriage by succession or donation shall enter the community, whether movable or immovable property, which must be established by inventory or other authentic act.

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978
Article 978 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
Debts contracted by the spouses before the marriage shall be paid and discharged by the one who contracted them.
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Debts contracted by the spouses before the marriage shall be paid and discharged by the one who contracted them.

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979
Article 979 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
The community property, as well as the wife's personal property, is managed and administered by the husband alone; he may not sell, alienate, or give...
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The community property, as well as the wife's personal property, is managed and administered by the husband alone; he may not sell, alienate, or give inter vivos the immovables belonging to the community without the wife's consent, still less those that are her own. When there are children existing from their marriage, the spouses may not, under any pretext whatsoever, sell or alienate their immovables, except those acquired during their marriage.

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980
Article 980 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
The wife of majority, whether in community or not, may accept a succession or donation without the husband's consent. But the minor wife may do...
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The wife of majority, whether in community or not, may accept a succession or donation without the husband's consent.

But the minor wife may do so only with the authorization of the husband of majority, or upon his refusal by court order, in the presence or absence of the husband, with the king's attorney being heard.

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981
Article 981 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
The wife who is a public merchant, authorized by her husband in the form prescribed by articles 89 and 90 of Title V, may bind...
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The wife who is a public merchant, authorized by her husband in the form prescribed by articles 89 and 90 of Title V, may bind herself for the purposes of her commerce only; and the husband, in this case, shall be liable for the debts she has contracted.

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982
Article 982 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
Leases of the wife's property, in community of property, may not be made for more than nine years, nor renewed more than two years before...
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Leases of the wife's property, in community of property, may not be made for more than nine years, nor renewed more than two years before their expiration for rural properties, nor more than one year for town and borough houses.

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983
Article 983 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
Debts attached to movable or other property falling to the spouses by succession or donation shall be discharged by the heir or donee spouse; the...
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Debts attached to movable or other property falling to the spouses by succession or donation shall be discharged by the heir or donee spouse; the community being liable only for debts contracted by the spouses during the marriage.

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984
Article 984 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
The community is bound to pay, during the marriage, only the arrears and interest on the personal annuities or debts of the spouses, as well...
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The community is bound to pay, during the marriage, only the arrears and interest on the personal annuities or debts of the spouses, as well as all the charges on their immovables, and the costs of repairs and maintenance thereof.

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985
Article 985 Civil Law · De la Communauté
Family Law
Common children who are endowed during the marriage by the spouses or one of them shall be deemed to have been endowed by the community,...
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Common children who are endowed during the marriage by the spouses or one of them shall be deemed to have been endowed by the community, unless there is a stipulation to the contrary that it is one spouse alone who provided the dowry.

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986
Article 986 Civil Law · De la Dissolution de la Communauté et de ses suites
Family Law
The community is dissolved by natural or civil death, dementia, madness, imbecility, and incurable contagious diseases such as leprosy, offensive bodily condition, and epilepsy, or...
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The community is dissolved by natural or civil death, dementia, madness, imbecility, and incurable contagious diseases such as leprosy, offensive bodily condition, and epilepsy, or by separation of property.

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987
Article 987 Civil Law · De la Dissolution de la Communauté et de ses suites
Family Law
Upon the dissolution of the community, an inventory shall be made of the property belonging thereto, within the time limits prescribed in articles 990, 991,...
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Upon the dissolution of the community, an inventory shall be made of the property belonging thereto, within the time limits prescribed in articles 990, 991, 992, and 993 below; it must be commenced upon the lifting of the seals, if they were affixed; and if not, within fifteen days from the day the community was dissolved.

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988
Article 988 Civil Law · De la Dissolution de la Communauté et de ses suites
Family Law
The wife or her heirs shall have the right, after the dissolution of the community, to accept it or renounce it; any agreement to the...
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The wife or her heirs shall have the right, after the dissolution of the community, to accept it or renounce it; any agreement to the contrary is null.

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989
Article 989 Civil Law · De la Dissolution de la Communauté et de ses suites
Family Law
When the wife has disposed of community property or has assumed in an act the status of partner in community, whether before or after making...
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When the wife has disposed of community property or has assumed in an act the status of partner in community, whether before or after making inventory, she may no longer renounce; but purely administrative or conservatory acts that she may perform do not give her the status of partner.

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990
Article 990 Civil Law · De la Dissolution de la Communauté et de ses suites
Family Law
The surviving wife loses the right to renounce the community if she has not made, within three months of the day of the husband's death,...
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The surviving wife loses the right to renounce the community if she has not made, within three months of the day of the husband's death, a good and faithful inventory of all community property, in the presence of the husband's heirs or with them duly summoned, which inventory she shall affirm as sincere and truthful upon its closing, before the notary who received it.

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991
Article 991 Civil Law · De la Dissolution de la Communauté et de ses suites
Family Law
The widow shall have in addition forty days after the closing of the inventory to deliberate whether she accepts or renounces the community; in the...
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The widow shall have in addition forty days after the closing of the inventory to deliberate whether she accepts or renounces the community; in the case of renunciation, it must be made at the clerk's office of the seneschal's court of the husband's domicile and recorded in the registers designated to receive renunciations of succession.

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