?Describe the civil law system and some of the countries in which a civil law system is followed.

Question

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Answer 1

A civil law system is a system of law derived from that of the Roman Empire and based on a code rather than case law; it is the predominant system of law in the nations of continental Europe and the nations that were once their colonies. The termcivil law,as used here, refers not to civil as opposed to criminal law but tocodified law-an ordered grouping of legal principles enacted into law by a legislature or governing body. In a civil law system, the primary source of law is a statutory code, and case precedents are not judicially binding, as they normally are in a common law system. This is not to say that precedents are unimportant in a civil law system; judges in such systems do refer to previous decisions as sources of legal guidance. The difference is that judges in a civil law system are not obligated to follow precedent to the extent that judges in a common law system are; in other words, the doctrine ofstare decisisdoes not apply.Today, the civil law system is followed in most of the continental European countries, as well as in the Latin American, African, and Asian countries that were once colonies of the continental European nations. Japan and Thailand also have civil law systems. Ingredients of the civil law system are also found in the Islamic courts of predominantly Muslim countries.In the United States, the state of Louisiana, because of its historical ties to France, has in part a civil law system. The legal systems of Puerto Rico, Quebec, and Scotland also have elements of a civil law system.