Civil law (legal system) Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Civil law is a legal system derived from Roman law and commonly used in Europe. It is mainly contrasted against Common Law.See Also: Civil Law for the branch of law dealing with citizens
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2 History 3 Civil v. common law 4 See Also |
Civil or civilian law is a legal tradition which is the basis of the law in many countries of the world, especially in continental Europe, but also in Quebec (Canada), Louisiana (USA), Japan, Latin America, and elsewhere. Some authors wrongly state that the Scottish legal system is also based on civil law, because of its origin in civil law. But it has been developing since 1707 into a mixed system, combining elements of civil law and of common law, as the House of Lords in England being the court of last resort for Scotland, has interpreted Scots Law through the lens of English jurisprudence.
In the United States, civil law is formally the basis of the law of Louisiana (as circumscribed by federal law and the U.S. Constitution), although in western and southwestern parts of the U.S., laws in such diverse areas as divorce and water rights show the influence of their Iberian civil-law heritage, being based on distinctly different principles from the laws of the northeastern states colonized by settlers with English common-law roots.
The civil law is based on Roman law, especially the Corpus Juris Civilis of Emperor Justinian, as latter developed through the Middle Ages by mediæval legal scholars. The most authoritative modern source is Karl Eduard Zachariæ.
Originally civil law was one common legal system in much of Europe, but with the development of nationalism in the 17th century Nordic countries and around the time of the French Revolution, it became fractured into separate national systems. This change was brought about by the development of separate national codes, most importantly the Napoleonic Code, but the German and Swiss codes are also of historical importance. Around this time civil law incorporated many ideas associated with the Enlightenment.
Because Germany was a rising power in the late 19th century when many Asian nations were introducing civil law, the German Civil Code has been the basis for the legal systems of Japan, South Korea, and the Republic of China (a.k.a. Taiwan).
Some authors consider that civil law later served as the foundation for socialist law used in Communist countries, which in this view would basically be civil law with the addition of Marxist-Leninist ideas.
Civil law is primarily contrasted against common law, which is the legal system developed among Anglo-Saxon peoples, especially in England.
The primary difference is that, historically, common law was law developed by custom, beginning before there were any written laws and continuing to be applied by courts after there were written laws, too, whereas civil law develops out of the Roman law of Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis proceeding from broad legal principles and the interpretation of doctrinal writings rather than the application of facts to legal fictions.
In later times civil law became codified as droit coutumier or customary law that were local compilations of legal principles recognized as normative. This led after the French Revolution to the development of Civil Codes in such jurisdictions such as France (with its Napoleonic Code), Quebec, Spain, Netherlands and Germany (with its own German Civil Code), but remains uncodified in such countries as Scotland, Belgium, Namibia and South Africa to name a few countries that remain uncodified civilian, or mixed, jurisdictions.
In practice, in many countries with systems based on civil law, such as France, case law (or, more properly, jurisprudence) still plays a considerable role.
Civil law countries tend to defer to the decisions of their legislative bodies, because judges see their job as simply applying the legal codes set forth by the legislatures. In turn, legal opinions in civil law countries are usually very short and formal in nature. Also, civil law judges are usually trained and promoted separately from attorneys.
Common law countries, especially the United States, see judges as balancing the power of the other branches of government, and allow for the development of "judge-made law" through the rule of stare decisis. In turn, common law opinions are much longer and contain elaborate reasoning, and common law judges are usually selected from competent, accomplished, and reputable attorneys.
Another difference is that civil law countries emphasize social stability, while common law countries focus on the rights of an individual. This is an Article on Civil law (legal system). Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Civil law (legal system) Overview
History
Civil v. common law