A legal system is the mechanism for creating, interpreting and enforcing the laws in a given jurisdiction.
The civilian legal system or civil law system is the general typology of legal systems found in most countries. It is an alternative to common law system and has its roots in Roman law. It is employed by almost every country that was not a colony of the British Empire. In most jurisdictions the civil law is codified in the form of a civil codes, but in some, like Scotland it remains uncodified. Most codes follow the tradition of Code Napoléon in some fashion. Notably, the German code was developed from Roman law with reference to German legal tradition. See also: Roman law, Scots law.
The common law, as applied in civil cases (as distinct from criminal cases), was devised as a means of compensating someone for wrongful acts known as torts, including both intentional torts and torts caused by negligence and as developing the body of law recognizing and regulating contracts.
Today common law is generally thought of as applying only to civil disputes; originally it encompassed the criminal law before criminal codes were adopted in most common law jurisdictions in the late 19th century, although many criminal codes reflect legislative attempts to codify the common law.
This was problematic as the patroon system of land holding, based on the feudal system and civil law, continued to operate in the colony until it was abolished in the mid-nineteenth century.
Feeds |
Contact