Legal systems - Comparison between Civil Law and Common Law

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                                               Civil law v Common law

‘Law is the solemn expression of legislative will’

Code of Napoleon.

There are a lot of adjacent issues that are linked correspondingly with each other. However, there are also many considerable differences between these two legal systems. They are related to legal formation, arrangement, basic notions and terminology. Of course, it is complicated to make a comparison between these two legal structures within one pieсe of coursework. The purpose of my work is to examine and emphasize the main peculiarities of Common and Civil law. Moreover, I will try to compare these two legal structures with each other.

First of all, let us define what the common law system is. In accordance with William Tetley Common law is the legal tradition which evolved in England from the 11th century onwards. Its principles appear for the most part in reported judgments, usually of the higher courts, in relation to specific fact situations arising in disputes which courts have adjudicated”.  Another definition, taken from   Juristic Dictionary “Common law is a system of norms, based on customs, it regulates public relationships in the State. Common law was formed on the basic principle of tradition, which was originated when there were no governments”. Common law is considered to be the part of law England formulated by the old common law courts. It is opposed to equity (the body of rules administered by the Court of Chancery, to statue law (the law laid down in Acts of Parliament), to special law (the law administered in special courts such as clerical law and law of merchants, and to civil law (Roman law).  In 1873, Common law was based on law which contains money damages, recognition of legal owner, whereas equity consists of trust of property and injunctions (orders to do or stop doing something). Basic principles of Common law lay on case law and customs. Many Disputes and punishments will be acquired by written cases in Common Law System, whereas in Civil law, there are certain articles which apply to such acquisitions.

With regard to historical issues, a long time ago society was represented as one unit. I think that this was the fairest time, because there was no individual property and all possession was divided equally. Punishment also was the same for everyone. Then, 7 thousands years ago, the patrimonial community appeared and an inequality had occurred. Some families worked harder then others and certainly, they gained more. This caused the emergence of the poor and the rich. During these times, the kind of punishment depended on an individual’s status in society. Also, it was time, when suits between people occurred. If we will refer to the Ancient Greece, in the hill of God Ares was Areopag. Members of Areopag decided who would be the nine governors. Judges judged people dishonestly. They made decisions, which were favorable to them and it was easy to do, because all statutes were unwritten. The judges were guided by customs, which transferred from generation to generation and could be interpreted under different cases. In my opinion, when laws are not written – there is a great space for arbitrariness. Therefore, people required records of these laws. At last, archon Dragon has written down ancient customs, which became the first laws.

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Some of them were related to primitive beliefs and now seem ridiculous. For instance, the bull, which has butted a person, was condemned into exile.  Common law was widely distributed in the slave - holding society and during period of feudalisms. This law was represented as notes about several tribes, for example, “Aleman truth” or “Russian truth”.

When written legislation appeared such concepts as injustice and inequality continued their existence.  I want to provide an example from the “Russian truth” (the largest monument of the Russian right, the code of the feudal rights).  Several groups of articles from ...

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