The ‘Code Pénal’ in the Itinerary of the Criminal Codification in America and Europe: ‘Influence’ and Circularity of Models

Abstract

The work aims to analyse the circulation of ideas contained in the French Code Pénal (1810) in some Latin American contexts, especially the Brazilian one but also another experiences in the 19th Century. The analysis method was the historical, and the main sources gathered to explain this were the texts of some criminal codes in Europe and America, the Brazilian lawyers who studied the Brazilian Criminal Code (1830) and other lawyers who studied those foreign criminal codes. The result obtained was the French Criminal Code is a model really utilized, but so many others too: most important to verify an influence it was understand the ways to circulation of French and other codes, as the Brazilian one.