On October 20, 2026, the Senate passed the bill to repeal the Code Noir without amendment, by a vote of 320 in favor and none against. Parliament has thus completed its review of a bill sponsored by Guadeloupe Representative Max Mathiasin, 341 years after the edict of March 1685. All that remains is for the law to be enacted.
"Code Noir": A Vote with No Opposing Votes in the Senate
On Tuesday, October 20, 2026, senators voted on the bill as adopted by the National Assembly on May 28. The vote resulted in 320 votes in favor, none against, and 18 abstentions, all from the Kanaky Communist, Republican, Citizen, and Ecologist Group. With no amendments, the bill is definitively adopted.
Five amendments put to a public vote, introduced by the Socialist and Communist caucuses, were rejected. The text therefore remains identical to that of the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate Judiciary Committee had finalized its version on October 14, six days before the public session. It must be enacted within a maximum of fifteen days, unless the matter is referred to the Constitutional Council. The Senate rapporteur, Louis Vogel, noted that there was little doubt regarding the implicit repeal of the Code Noir. He nevertheless deemed it justified to include an explicit repeal in the law.
Max Mathiasin: The Origin of a Text from Guadeloupe
It all begins in early May 2025. Max Mathiasin He and his colleague Olivier Serva are gauging the extent of the public reaction to the continued existence of the Code Noir. Jean-Claude Nelson, the ninth vice president of the Guadeloupe region, had brought this issue to the representative’s attention. The two elected officials decided to take action. The bill was introduced in the National Assembly on September 16, 2025, with 130 co-sponsors.
The Law Commission unanimously approved it on May 20, 2026. On May 21—the 25th anniversary of the Taubira Law—the government initiated the fast-track procedure. Members of Parliament adopted it on May 28. Max Mathiasin also served as the rapporteur for the bill before the National Assembly’s Law Commission. For Max Mathiasin, these provisions had remained in “the shadows of our legal system.” He believed the time had come to bring them out of the shadows.
What did the Code Noir of 1685 represent?
The Code Noir is a collection of royal edicts issued between 1685 and 1724. It established the relationship between masters and enslaved people in the French colonies. It also addressed the slave trade. Its founding text dates from March 1685. Its official title says it all: “Edict of the King on the Slaves of the Islands of America.”
Why repeal the Code Noir when slavery has been abolished since 1848?
The Convention abolished slavery for the first time on February 4, 1794. Napoleon reinstated it. A decree dated April 27, 1848, issued at the instigation of Victor Schoelcher, abolished it once and for all. The Code Noir then fell into disuse, without ever having been formally repealed. It is this paradox that our May 2026 article detailed prior to the vote by members of the National Assembly. From a legal standpoint, the Senate’s vote is essentially symbolic, since the Code Noir no longer has any effect. Its significance lies in what the law now affirms.
What the Law Stipulates Beyond Repeal
Article 1 repeals the edict of March 1685 and all provisions adopted for its implementation, adaptation, or extension to other territories. Article 1 bis goes further. In it, the French Republic recognizes that the laws that institutionalized the reduction of human beings to the status of personal property are inseparable from the crime against humanity. This crime is the one that the Taubira Act of May 21, 2001, recognized in the context of the slave trade and slavery.
Article 2 requires the Government to submit a report to Parliament within one year of the law’s enactment. The report will list the provisions derived from colonial law that are still in force in the overseas territories. It will analyze their contemporary implications, particularly for the descendants of enslaved people. It will assess the role of the history of slavery, the slave trade, and their abolition in school curricula. Finally, it will propose measures to develop sites of remembrance and historical research.
After repeal, the transfer
The Code Noir is thus being removed from French law, but its history must still be passed on. Within a year of its enactment, the report will detail what traces of colonial law remain in the overseas territories. It will also address the extent to which schools address slavery, the slave trade, and their abolition. It remains to be seen what Parliament will do with these proposals—and what students will take away from them.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Code Noir
On October 20, 2026, Parliament definitively adopted the repeal of the Code Noir. The law must still be enacted within a maximum of fifteen days, unless the matter is referred to the Constitutional Council.
No. It fell into disuse with the permanent abolition of slavery by the decree of April 27, 1848, but it had never been formally repealed.
It repeals the edict of March 1685 and the provisions adopted for its implementation. It links these texts to the crime against humanity recognized by the Taubira Act of 2001. Finally, it requires the Government to submit a report, within one year of its enactment, on colonial law still in force.
