Back قانون مدني (نظام قانوني) Arabic Derechu continental AST Кантынэнтальнае права BE-X-OLD Континентална правна система Bulgarian দেওয়ানি আইন (আইনি ব্যবস্থা) Bengali/Bangla Dret continental Catalan Kontinentální evropské právo Czech Civilret (retssystem) Danish Romiĝermana juro Esperanto Derecho continental Spanish
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Civil law is a legal system rooted in the Roman Empire and was comprehensively codified and disseminated starting in the 19th century, most notably with France's Napoleonic Code (1804) and Germany's Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (1900).[2][3] Unlike common law systems, which rely heavily on judicial precedent,[4] civil law systems are characterized by their reliance on legal codes that function as the primary source of law.[5][6] Today, civil law is the world's most common legal system, practiced in about 150 countries.[7]
The civil law system is often contrasted with the common law system, which originated in medieval England. Whereas the civil law takes the form of legal codes, the common law comes from uncodified case law that arises as a result of judicial decisions, recognising prior court decisions as legally binding precedent.[8]
Historically, a civil law is the group of legal ideas and systems ultimately derived from the Corpus Juris Civilis, but heavily overlain by Napoleonic, Germanic, canonical, feudal, and local practices,[9] as well as doctrinal strains such as natural law, codification, and legal positivism.
Conceptually, civil law proceeds from abstractions, formulates general principles, and distinguishes substantive rules from procedural rules.[10] It holds case law secondary and subordinate to statutory law. Civil law is often paired with the inquisitorial system, but the terms are not synonymous. There are key differences between a statute and a code.[11] The most pronounced features of civil systems are their legal codes, with concise and broadly applicable texts that typically avoid factually specific scenarios.[12][11] The short articles in a civil law code deal in generalities and stand in contrast with ordinary statutes, which are often very long and very detailed.[11]
- ^ Alphabetical Index of the 192 United Nations Member States and Corresponding Legal Systems Archived 2016-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Website of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa
- ^ Carlson, Scott (May 2009). Introduction to Civil Law Legal Systems (PDF) (Report). INPROL. pp. 1, 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-02-16. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
- ^ "Legal Traditions | Judiciaries Worldwide". judiciariesworldwide.fjc.gov. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
Civil law predates common law by nearly 1500 years. Its origins can be seen in written laws as early as the fifth century BC in ancient Rome. These laws were meant to be comprehensive and authoritative; they were meant to address every conceivable issue, and the answer derived from a centralized imperial authority. Civil law takes its name from the Corpus Juris Civilis, the first effort to codify all of the Roman law, compiled under the rule of Justinian in the sixth century AD.
- ^ "The Common Law and Civil Law Traditions" (PDF). Berkeley Law. 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-11-22. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
Common law is generally uncodified. This means that there is no comprehensive compilation of legal rules and statutes. While common law does rely on some scattered statutes, which are legislative decisions, it is largely based on precedent, meaning the judicial decisions that have already been made in similar cases. These precedents are maintained over time through the records of the courts as well as historically documented in collections of case law known as yearbooks and reports. The precedents to be applied in the decision of each new case are determined by the presiding judge.
- ^ Carlson, Scott (May 2009). Introduction to Civil Law Legal Systems (PDF) (Report). INPROL. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-02-16. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
- ^ "The Common Law and Civil Law Traditions" (PDF). Berkeley Law. 2016. p. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-11-22. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
Civil Law, in contrast, is codified. Countries with civil law systems have comprehensive, continuously updated legal codes that specify all matters capable of being brought before a court, the applicable procedure, and the appropriate punishment for each offense.
- ^ "Legal system - The World Factbook". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
Civil Law - the most widespread type of legal system in the world, applied in various forms in approximately 150 countries.
- ^ Husa, Jaakko (2016-05-02). "The Future of Legal Families". Oxford Handbook Topics in Law. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935352.013.26. ISBN 978-0-19-993535-2.
- ^ Charles Arnold Baker, The Companion to British History, s.v. "Civilian" (London: Routledge, 2001), 308.
- ^ Michel Fromont, Grands systèmes de droit étrangers, 4th edn. (Paris: Dalloz, 2001), 8.
- ^ a b c Steiner, Eva (2018). "Codification". French Law. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198790884.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-879088-4.
- ^ “The role of legislation is to set, by taking a broad approach, the general propositions of the law, to establish principles which will be fertile in application, and not to get down to the details. . . .” Alain Levasseur, Code Napoleon or Code Portalis?, 43 Tul. L. Rev. 762, 769 (1969).