On the Internet, selections of “strange” laws from around the world are common, in which a paradoxical ban from France is regularly found. We checked whether such a law really exists.

The assertion that in France it is impossible to give a nickname in honor of the French emperor and commander is found in numerous collections with others "Strange", "Stupid" And "Absurd" laws. Moreover, the authors of many famous media also talk about the ban both in Russia and abroad. For example, this story is mentioned "RIA Novosti" "Parliamentary newspaper", The Sun, CNN, The Times, Huffpost, Business Insider, Daily Sabah And many others. An unusual French law fell into the cinema - so, about it speaks The character of the film Guy Richie "Gentlemen".

A common feature of many publications and collections that tell about this law is the lack of a date of its adoption. Some authors even say that the law has existed for three centuries, although Napoleon was not even born then. There are also quite general dating like “dates back to the 19th century”, “was accepted during the first or second empire”, etc. It is suspicious that the authors do not date exactly such a well -known ban and do not give references to a specific legislative act in which the relevant norm is spelled out.

The historian Sophia Moffs also noticed this oddity and still decided to study the laws adopted during the time of Napoleon. Scientist investigated Numerous volumes with the norms acting during the first empire, Napoleon consulates and even a hundred days - the result was deplorable. The law on the ban on calling a pig in honor of the emperor could not find. The search for court decisions that could be sentenced by the owner of such an animal could also end in a similar way.

Some publications (and after them Internet users) associate a similar ban on the punishment for insulting the French president. The head of state in France for a long time was protected by a separate law against slander and rudeness, the wording of which implied a very wide application. However, this norm concerned an exclusively acting national leader and was Accepted Only in 1881, 60 years after the death of Napoleon Bonaparte, and eight years after the death of Emperor Napoleon III, so even theoretically this law could not protect them. In 2013, the France parliament at all canceled This ban as violating freedom of speech - now the president is protected by the same norms as the rest of civil servants.

Probably, the emergence of numerous publications about an unusual French law is associated with fiction. In 1945, George Orwell Published The anti -utopian story “Cross Courtyard”, one of the main characters of which is a boar named Napoleon. Although the vast majority of literary critics See In it, a allusion to Stalin, in the first French translation, the nickname was replaced with Caesar - so continued Until 1981. It is possible that people who learned about this fact came to the conclusion about the presence of a corresponding legal prohibition.

The existence of the verified law is also refuted by messages of the French media. So, in 2014, the La Depeche newspaper I wrote About the "Pig Superzovet from the Internet" nicknamed Napoleon. The 90-kilogram boar not only became the restaurant talisman, but also scored several hundred subscribers on social networks. We were not able to find reports that the owner of Napoleon was brought in responsibility for insulting the French emperor.