France scraps 400-year-old Black Code governing colonial slavery

France's parliament this week formally repealed the Code Noir, a 17th-century legal document that codified slavery rules in French Caribbean colonies, permitting slave owners to treat laborers as property and authorizing brutal punishments including beatings and executions. The removal of the statute from French law books comes after decades of advocacy by historians and descendants of enslaved people who were shocked the law remained on the books despite slavery's abolition. The repeal addresses a symbolic but significant gap in France's reckoning with its colonial past, as the Code Noir had remained an official legal text despite having no enforcement power. The decision reflects broader European efforts to confront historical injustices embedded in national legal codes.