Civil law (legal system)

• 1. Roman Roots And Medieval Reception

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  The Justinian Code emerged in the 6th century AD as a sophisticated model for contracts and family law. This legal text became the primary inspiration for civil law systems across Europe. Roman law continued without interruption in the Eastern Roman Empire until its final fall in the 15th century. Western European powers later implemented these laws through multiple incursions and occupations during the late medieval period. Students at universities like Oxford and Cambridge were the only trained lawyers who could teach this system. Consequently, Roman law served as a secondary source applied when local customs lacked specific rules. Even local law eventually came to be interpreted primarily on the basis of Roman law. The work of civilian glossators led to the development of a common body of law known as the ius commune. This common legal language consolidated canon law and Roman law throughout Europe.

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• 2. Codification And Modern Codes

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  France enacted the Napoleonic Code in 1804 under the direction of French emperor Napoleon. This code comprises three components covering persons, property, and commercial law. Germany introduced its Civil Code or BGB into effect within the German empire in 1900. The German Civil Code divides into five parts including obligations, things, domestic relations, and succession. Switzerland adopted its own codification in 1912 after following the Swiss version adopted in Brazil in 1916. Denmark completed its codification process in 1687 while Sweden finished theirs in 1734. Prussia finalized its code in 1794 and Austria followed suit in 1811. These codes moved forward despite resistance from those claiming it would ossify the law. The political ideals of the Enlightenment required certainty through recorded uniform law. Codifications were imported into colonies at one time or another by most of these countries. Japan began emulating European systems during the Meiji Era starting in the late 19th century.

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• 3. Global Geographic Distribution

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  Civil law is practiced in about 150 countries across the world today. Continental Europe hosts civil law systems except for Andorra which retains Roman law without a civil code. East Asia includes nations like Indonesia, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey under this system. Central and South America feature civil law jurisdictions excluding Guyana, Belize, Cuba and the Falkland Islands. North Africa, Lusophone Africa, and Francophone Africa utilize civil law such as Egypt, Angola and Cote d'Ivoire. Chilean jurist Andrés Bello created an original work known as the Chilean Code. This code was integrally adopted by Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela. Cameroon remains bi-juridical due to being a former colony of both France and the United Kingdom. Hong Kong uses common law while Macau continues with a Portuguese legal system of civil law. Some Islamic countries have civil law systems containing elements of Islamic law like the Egyptian Civil Code of 1810.

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• 4. Statutes Versus Precedent

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  The Napoleonic Code expressly forbade French judges from pronouncing general principles of law in 1803. There is no doctrine of stare decisis in the French civil law tradition. Civil law judges tend to give less weight to judicial precedent compared to common law systems. In some civil law jurisdictions the judiciary does not have authority to invalidate legislative provisions. Courts lack authority to act if there is no statute present in the jurisdiction. Civil law codes must be changed constantly because court precedents are not binding. The Common Law and Civil Law Traditions note that regular good-quality law reports exist in France but this is inconsistent practice elsewhere. In French-speaking colonial Africa there were no law reports and historical cases come from journal publications. Judges in these systems cannot examine prevailing practices regarding what agreements mean within trade at contract entry time. Legislators function almost like gods while judges operate as mere men applying written codes strictly.

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• 5. Distinct Regional Subgroups

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  Napoleonic systems include France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Chile, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico and most Arab world countries where Islamic law is not used. Germanistic systems cover Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Russia, Lithuania, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Ukraine, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Nordic jurisprudence includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden together with Faroe Islands and Greenland. Scandinavian countries form a special version of jurisprudence neither truly civil nor British-derived common law. Chinese law represents a mixture of civil law and socialist law absorbing features of common law for commercial transactions. Poland developed as a mixture of French and German civil law during the 19th century before reunification merged five legal systems into one. Dutch law was originally codified in Napoleonic tradition but heavily altered under influence from Roman-Dutch native traditions. Quebec private law innovated mainly from civil sources adapting to Canadian common law public systems. Texas and California retained aspects of Spanish civil law including community property rights within their legal frameworks.

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