Legal System

Civil Law

Also Known As Continental Law

Civil Law Family

Civil law is a legal system in which comprehensive written codes, rather than judicial precedent, are the primary source of law, with courts interpreting and applying the code rather than making binding law of their own. The tradition traces its intellectual roots to ancient Roman law, especially its sixth century compilation under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, the Corpus Juris Civilis, rediscovered and studied intensively in medieval European universities from the eleventh century onward, and took its modern codified form in the national civil codes enacted across Europe from the early nineteenth century, most influentially the Napoleonic Code of 1804. It is the most widespread legal system in the world today by number of jurisdictions, covering most of continental Europe, Latin America, and large parts of Africa and Asia.

Facts

Disputed

Origin Year

1804 2

1804, the enactment of the Napoleonic Code, is taken here as the origin of the modern codified civil law tradition, since it was the model most widely adopted or adapted by other nations. The tradition intellectual roots are far older, tracing to Roman law and particularly to Justinian own sixth century Corpus Juris Civilis, so which date counts as origin depends on whether the Roman legal inheritance or its modern codified form is meant.

Example Jurisdictions

France, Germany, Italy, Spain, most of continental Europe, Latin America, and large parts of Africa and Asia. 2

Primary Source of Law

Comprehensive written codes and statutes, with case law playing a secondary, interpretive role. 3

Classification

Legal Family

Civil Law 1

Civil Law

80 entries

Era

Promulgated By

Authored By

Group Tree

Legal Status

Country or Jurisdiction

Connections

Showing the first 400 of 435 connections.

Includes

Supreme Court of Monaco

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Monaco, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Supreme Court of Senegal

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Senegal, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Supreme Court of Tajikistan

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Tajikistan, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Supreme Court of the Comoros

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Comoros, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Supreme Court of the Republic of China (Taiwan)

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Taiwan, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Supreme Court of Turkmenistan

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Turkmenistan, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Synallagmatic contract

Source Synallagmatic contract (Wikipedia)

Tai Ji Men Case (Taiwan)

Source An Introduction to Comparative LawKonrad Zweigert and Hein Koetz; English translation by Tony Weir

Tatu Leppanen

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Finland, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

The Twelve Tables

Source An Introduction to Comparative LawKonrad Zweigert and Hein Koetz; English translation by Tony Weir

Thierry Hoscheit

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Luxembourg, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Thomas Offenloch

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Germany, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Germany, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Unification Church Dissolution Case (Japan)

Source An Introduction to Comparative LawKonrad Zweigert and Hein Koetz; English translation by Tony Weir

Usucaption

Source Usucaption (Wikipedia)

Usufruct

Source Usufruct (Wikipedia)

Vacarius

Villu Kove

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Estonia, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Visigothic Code

Vivianus (jurist)

Wagner Vallecillo

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Honduras, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

WEEE Directive

European Union directive, applied across member states whose domestic systems are predominantly civil law.

Source Major Legal Systems in the World TodayRene David and John E.C. Brierley

Youssoupha Ndiaye

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Senegal, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Yvonne Ott

Source Central Intelligence Agency: Germany, The World Factbook (factbook.json archive copy)

Showing 301 to 330 of 330 in Includes, page 7 of 7.

Held Differently

Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)

Why this is disputed. The CJEU is a supranational court whose case law draws heavily on continental civil law method and whose member states are mostly civil law jurisdictions, but EU law itself is often described by comparative scholars as a distinct legal order rather than a member of any single one of the five traditions; the civil law classification here reflects the Court's dominant working method, not a claim that EU law is simply continental civil law.

Source The Oxford Handbook of Comparative LawMathias Reimann and Reinhard Zimmermann, editors

Habeas Corpus

Civil law systems generally provide analogous judicial protection against arbitrary detention through differently named procedures rather than through habeas corpus as such.

Source Habeas Corpus (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)

Judicial Review

Civil law jurisdictions generally exercise constitutional review through a single dedicated constitutional court rather than diffusing it across the ordinary judiciary as the United States does, a different account of the same underlying power rather than a rejection of it.

Mens Rea

Civil law systems reach a broadly comparable result through the distinct concepts of dol (intent) and culpa (fault) rather than through mens rea as such, a different account of criminal culpability rather than a rejection of it.

Source Mens Rea (Wikipedia)

M'Naghten Rules

Civil law systems generally excuse a mentally disordered defendant through their own non-responsibility provisions (for example Article 122-1 of the French Penal Code), a differently framed doctrine reaching a broadly similar result rather than the M'Naghten test itself.

Source M'Naghten Rules (Wikipedia)

Rule of Law

Civil law systems generally express the rule of law through the Rechtsstaat tradition and codified principles of legality rather than through the common law rule of law as such.

Legal Family Of

Judicial system of the United Arab Emirates