There are five main legal systems in the world

1. acts of the united kingdom parliament;

2. statutory instruments such as orders and regulations, which are made by a Minister or by Queen in Council.

3. Acts of devolved Scottish Parliament and statutory instruments are made by the Scottish Executive.

4. Statutory instruments made by the National assembly for Wales; 5.Decusuibsm directives and regulations of the European Communities.

“Legislation is the cornerstone of the modern legal system.”[3] In civil law countries, legislation is seen as the primary source of law. Because of the

traditional request of civil law are precision and unified, the legislation needs much longer time than the common law. It is well-know that one character of law is sluggish, which means law always be made after one case happened and passed many steps. To constitute a part of law, even one item in civil law legal system countries usually follows these kind of steps: suggestion—discussion—modification—resolution. Therefore it would last for quite a long time to constitute or modify law. In order to deal with current case which is out of the code, courts in civil law legal system countries has to reason extensively on the basis of general principles of the code, or by drawing analogies from statutory provisions to fill lacunae. Whereas, the primary source of law in the common law system is cases, while statutes are only seen as explanations which are introduced into the common law and interpreted narrowly.[4] With the development of legal systems, it is hard to distinguish the difference by the fact of codification because common law jurisdictions have frequently codified parts of their law. For example, the American has enacted the <<U.S. Uniform Commercial Code>>.Meanwhile, Case law is not the “patent” of some particular legal tradition, but an important component of the legal system in a society based on the rule of law.[5] Although civil

law countries don’t accept case as the source in judgment, lots of judge invoke methods as “judge-made law” under the rule of stare decisis in

practices. Such as the American sociologist of law Marc Galant said, after a systematic investigation, the function of case law is a principle of modern legal systems in the world.[6]

Because of the different backgrounds and juridical concepts between civil law legal system and common law legal system, some rules and definitions are also can be pointed out clearly:

1. The pre-judgment interests are recoverable as of right in civil law, which has just been rewarded only in relatively recent times in common law systems.
2. The obligations in civil law legal system are provided as the same meaning of enforcement on economic loss, no matter it is patrimonial obligation or contractual obligation. Common law allows the consequential damages in contract.[7]

3. civil law, there are called amiable compositeur clauses. In common law equity clause the purports expressly to dispense the arbitrator from applying the law either wholly or in part in an arbitration agreement. Strict equity clauses are suspect in England, however, amiable

compositeur clauses are generally permitted in civil law jurisdictions

and are found in civilian codes.[8]  

4. There are also some difference in interpretation and construction of contracts. Based on the autonomy of free will, civil law requires actual consent but presumptions of fact are available to the trial judge. The contractual promises are interpreted according to the reasonable expectation of the promisee in common law.

5. The expression of conflict of laws in common law includes choice of jurisdiction and recognition of foreign judgments, which emphasize the rules of jurisdiction. In civil law, the conflict of laws equals private international law, which focuses on the choice of law items.

Nowadays, modern business changes apace and enormously. Law plays the role of guard to keep the increasing of economy and steady of market. The characteristics of preciseness and exactitude in civil law legal system can protect the business development from damage. Meanwhile, common law legal system uses its flexible trait to solve the different cases. Because in common law legal system, judge has the power to make the decisions if there was no previous case or statute. With the changing in commercial cases more and more fast. Common law system could settle

the new diversification more effective and efficient than civil law legal system.

The dispute resolution on business is “the process of resolving disputes between parties and includes lawsuits (litigation), arbitration, mediation, conciliation, and many types of negotiation.”[9] The main methods to resolve the dispute are: processes and consensual processes. Processes means enter the litigation or arbitration to get the outcome by judge, jury or arbitration. Consensual processes means the parties attempt to reach the agreement by mediation, negotiation or conciliation. In negotiation, there is no third party who either facilitates the resolution process or imposes a resolution. in arbitration, there is a third party who both facilitates the resolution process and imposes a resolution. The above two methods aim at the dispute in native business. Moreover, in international dispute or cross-boarder transactions, international arbitration is a frequently selected dispute resolution choice. In addition, some stipulations which are made among countries or international organizations can also resolve the dispute in international trade. For example, the agreements which signed by membership in World Tourism

Organization (WTO) should obey the rules in this organization, the relevant disputes should be resolved by WTO.

In brief, civil law legal system and common law legal system are the most important legal systems in the world, which make up of the basic world legal frame. Based on their different characteristics and legislations, it is easy to know the impact on business practices. The current dispute resolution in these two legal systems also gives good sample to other legal system.

REFERENCE

Asif Tufal, (2003), “The tort of negligence”, [Online],

available:  [25, Apr, 2005]

Art. 1153 C.C. (France); Art. 1617 C.C.Q. (Québec); Art. 2000 C.C. (Louisiana).

Justice M H McHugh J, (1995), The Growth of Legislation and Litigation’  69 Australian Law Journal 37. Study gide.

Qi, Zhang.,(2002),  Comparative Law Study, Series NO.4, in Chinese, China

The modern legal system, ,<<Modern legal research>>, 2000, p 252

Wikipedia Encyclopedia, civil law (legal system), [Online], available: [22nd, Mar, 2005]

Wikipedia Encyclopedia, civil law (legal system), [online]. Available:

 [22, Mar, 2005]

William Tetley, Q.C. (2000), Mixed jurisdictions : common law vs civil law (codified and uncodified), [online], available:                                                            

[25, Mar, 2005]

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