SIMPLY

Civil law is primarily contrasted against Common Law, which is the legal system in England, the US and other countries influenced by the English. The lie in the and the civil law is a law enacted by a nation or state for its own jurisdiction; it is a codified system of law setting out a comprehensive system of rules that are applied and interpreted by judges. In the Common Law system the primary sources of law are . These opinions contain legal principles that can be applied to solve future cases.

Discuss

Concepts

branches of government

most governments (such as the US government) can be devided into three separate branches: legislative, executive and judicial branch, whereby each branch has its own responsibilities (making, executing and interpreting the law).

case law

in Common Law systems, higher court decisions are binding on lower courts in cases with similar facts and similar legal issues. This concept of (see below) means that lower courts are bound to appellate cases. The law based on judicial decision and precedent rather than on statutes (case law) is distinguished from “statutory law,” which is the statutes and codes (laws) enacted by legislative bodies.

civil law

body of laws and legal concepts derived from old Roman laws which differ from (Angloamerican) Common Law; generic term for non-criminal law.

code

systematic and comprehensive (written) compilation of laws, rules or regulations, which are classified according to subject matter. The process of collecting and restating the law is known as “codification”.

Common Law

the system of deciding cases referring to former (precedent) cases, which originated in England and was later adopted in the US. Today, many Common Law principles have been transformed into statutes with modern variations.

Court of Equity

originally, in English Common Law and in several states there were separate courts (some called “chancery courts”) which handled lawsuits and petitions dealing with various non-monetary claims. The judicial remedies (“equitable remedies”) developed by these courts provided flexible responses to changing social conditions allowing courts to use their discretion. Nowadays, most Courts of Equity have merged with courts of law.

judiciary

the judicial branch of government.

legal methodology

the system of methods followed in a particular ( legal) discipline; an organized set of procedures and guidelines (method, , approach). Sometimes, methodologies include a step-by-step “cookbook”-approach for carrying out the procedure.

legislative act

an act passed by a legislative body.

legislative enactment / legislation

lawmaking; the preparation and enactment of laws by a legislative body.

precedent

an appellate court decision which establishes a legal rule (authority) and is therefore cited as an example to resolve similar questions of law in later cases. The principle that a lower court must follow a precedent is called (see below).

provision (of law)

a statute often has various provisions (articles, clauses).

stare decisis [ster-?-di-s?-s?s]

Latin for “to stand by a decision”; it expresses the (Common Law) doctrine that lower courts are bound by higher court decisions (precedents) on a legal question which was raised by the lower court. A trial court judge must not ignore the precedent until the appellate court changes the rule.

statute

written law enacted by state legislature; local statutes or laws are usually called “ordinances.” Regulations, rulings, opinions, executive orders and proclamations are not statutes.

Vocabulary