Comparison Between Common Law And Civil Law

Comparison between Common Law and Civil Law

Law is an essential element for any civilization. Laws in general are the rules set and enforced by an authority that we must follow. The main purpose of these rules is to solve a specific problem or conflict between two parties or more. Furthermore, laws were there long time ago and still exist until this day to help solve various cases and scenarios we see and hear about in our daily life. Law can be categorized into two general categories; which are common law and civil law. Each one of these two differs from the other in many aspects. We can differentiate between common law and civil law through many key points that I will highlight in the coming paragraphs. First of all, the legal system,

The common law systems have evolved primarily in England and its former colonies, including all but one US jurisdiction and all but one Canadian jurisdiction. For the most part, the English-speaking world operates under common law. On the contrary, the civil law tradition developed in continental Europe at the same time and was applied in the colonies of European imperial powers such as Spain and Portugal. Common law is a peculiar to England in its origin. Until the Norman Conquest, there were different rules for different regions of the country. But as the laws and the country began to unite, a common law was created based on customs and rulings across the country. These rules developed organically and were rarely written down. European rulers on the other hand ruled on Roman law, and a compilation of rules issued by the emperor Justinian in the 6th century that was rediscovered in 11th-century Italy. With the Enlightenment of the 18th century, rulers from different continental countries took to comprehensive legal

The common law system sources are: Constitution, legislation – Statutes and subsidiary legislation, judicial precedent – common law and equity, custom, convention and international Law. Similarly, we have the civil law system sources which are: Constitution, legislation – statutes and subsidiary legislation, custom, international and law, it may be argued that judicial precedents and conventions also function within Continental systems, but they are not generally recognized. The two systems have similar sources of law, both have statutes and both have case law, they approach regulation and resolve issues in different ways from different perspectives. In conclusion, both common law and civil law systems serve the same purpose. The common law may differ from the civil law in the methods and procedures of enforcing the law. They both use rules and regulations to cope with deferent situations and to insure the enforcement of