This article has two aims: firstly, to shed light on the driving force of “Napoleonic constitutionalism” as a means of restructuring Europe politically; secondly, to evaluate the extent to which Napoleonic constitutionalism can actually be claimed to have paved the way for legal universalism, and to assess its political repercussions in the long term. With a view to provide food for thought rather than a comprehensive account of the subject, focus is put on the German Confederation of the Rhine and the Bavarian Constitution of 1808 in particular, which is reputed to have been one of Napoleon’s “satellite constitutions”.