civil law

Paralleling the common-law changes described above, civil-law systems underwent several periods of reform in the 19th century, rationalizing procedural rules while maintaining the principle of judicial guidance of litigation.

On the Continent, the revived study of classical Roman law had an immense influence upon the developing law of contract. It stimulated the rediscovery or construction of a general law concerning the validity of agreements. The Roman law, however, as crystallized in Justinian’s…

…constitutes an offense in the civil code, it will frequently constitute an offense of which military law takes cognizance. In Belgium, for example, all civil offenses committed by soldiers, except very minor ones, are tried by military court. In France, Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia, in peacetime, all crimes, military or…

…and the inquisitorial approach of civil-law systems such as those of continental Europe. Following the common-law model, prosecutions at the ICC are directed by an independent prosecutor rather than by an investigating judge, as would be the practice under civil-law systems. As in civil-law systems, however, the ICC prosecutor is…

In most civil-law countries, the adoption of a treaty is a legislative act. The relationship between municipal and international law varies, and the status of an international treaty within domestic law is determined by the country’s constitutional provisions. In federal systems, the application of international law is…

Some, although not all, of the arrangements described above are possible in civil law. The major distinction between Anglo-American and civil law in this regard is that civil law normally does not regard such arrangements as involving divisions of ownership. Thus, the usufruct,…

The civil-law criminal codes do not observe the Anglo-American distinction between larceny and embezzlement. Otherwise, the criminal prosecution of theft in civil law is quite similar to that in the Anglo-American systems. An intent to deprive (animus furandi) is required. The penalty will vary depending on…

A generally restrictive attitude toward servitudes is manifest in the modern civil law. In French law it is not possible to create a servitude that benefits a person rather than a tenement or piece of land—i.e., a servitude must have both a dominant…

In common-law countries, civil cases require only preponderant probability, and criminal cases require probability beyond reasonable doubt. In civil-law countries so much probability is required that reasonable doubts are excluded.

civil law, and the vast majority of legal systems that derive from them, any instance of harmful behaviour, such as physical attack on one’s person or interference with one’s possessions or with the use and enjoyment of one’s land, economic interests (under certain conditions), honour,…

>civil law. In contract law, for example, civil law has no direct counterpart to the common-law requirement that a promise be supported by “consideration”—i.e., by a bargained-for exchange—in order to be binding. Similarly, the systems differ with respect to formalities that may be required for…

Legal theory flourished and was sophisticated early on, being expressed in several collections of legal decisions, the so-called codes, of which the best-known is the Code of Hammurabi. Throughout these codes recurs the concern of the ruler for the weak, the widow, and the orphan—even…

It also includes, however, some civil-law enactments, among these a chapter that declares that daughters cannot inherit land. Although this section was not invoked in the exclusion of the daughters of Louis X, Philip V, and Charles IV from the throne, it took on critical importance under the later Valois…

…of the criminal court in civil-law systems is quite different from its role in common-law ones. Civil-law countries assign a more active role to the judge and a more passive role to counsel. Instead of being passive recipients of evidence produced by the prosecution and the defense, judges in civil-law…

In civil-law courts the procedure is inquisitorial—i.e., judges do most of the questioning of witnesses and have a responsibility to discover the facts. In common-law courts the procedure is adversarial—i.e., the lawyers for each side do most of the questioning of witnesses and the presentation of…

Professional judges in civil-law countries are markedly different in background and outlook from professional judges in common-law countries. Both have legal training and both perform substantially the same functions, but there the similarities cease. In a typical civil-law country, a person graduating from…