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Legal Systems: Common Law vs Civil Law
If you are unaware of the differences between Common Law and Civil Law systems, like me you will be interested to read these articles on Wikipedia.
And for those who might just want a summary, here is an abstract from Wikipedia :
I hope this helps non legalese aware folks to understand about the two different systems.
And for those who might just want a summary, here is an abstract from Wikipedia :
"Thus, the difference between civil law and common law lies not just in the mere fact of codification, but in the methodological approach to codes and statutes. In civil law countries, legislation is seen as the primary source of law. By default, courts thus base their judgments on the provisions of codes and statutes, from which solutions in particular cases are to be derived. Courts thus have to reason extensively on the basis of general rules and principles of the code, often drawing analogies from statutory provisions to fill lacunae and to achieve coherence. By contrast, in the common law system, cases are the primary source of law, while statutes are only seen as incursions into the common law and thus interpreted narrowly."
I hope this helps non legalese aware folks to understand about the two different systems.
Kristy.Laval |
Latest page update: made by Kristy.Laval
, May 1 2007, 2:15 PM EDT
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| ashcroftburnham | Addendum | 1 | Jan 19 2012, 6:20 PM EST by FredericDesjardins | ||
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Thread started: May 2 2007, 8:30 AM EDT
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One thing that I'd add to the above description of the difference in the approach to statutes is this: in civil law systems, statutes set the general principles of the law expressly by stating them; the courts then make their own interpretations of those general principles afresh in each case to arrive at conclusions about how those general principles translate into details.
In common law systems, the approach is the opposite: the legislation sets the details, from which the general principles emerge, much like a computer programme. The idea is that those who are making the statutes, rather than the courts, should be the ones who have the power to decide how the details work. The civil law can thus be described as a top-down approach to principles, whereas the common law can be described as a bottom up approach. Both systems *value* principles equally, but arrive at them, and deal with the interface between principle and detail, in very different ways. |
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| ashcroftburnham | Excellent | 0 | May 2 2007, 8:26 AM EDT by ashcroftburnham | ||
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Thread started: May 2 2007, 8:26 AM EDT
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Very helpful, Kirsty, thank you :-)
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