France Repeals 1685 'Code Noir' Slave Law After 178 Years

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On 28 May 2026, France’s National Assembly voted unanimously to repeal the Code Noir. The law was first signed by Louis XIV in 1685. It treated enslaved people in French colonies as property with no rights. President Macron called its survival “an offence” and urged careful discussion of reparations. France was the third-largest slave trader in the transatlantic trade, shipping around 1.4 million Africans to colonial plantations. This move formally removes a centuries-old statute that has outlasted the abolition of slavery since 1848.

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