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Law legal
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Systems
of law
Every
independent country has its own legal system. The systems vary
according to each country's social traditions and form of government.
But most systems can be classed as either (1) a common-law system or
(2) a civil-law system. Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Great Britain
(except Scotland), the United States, and other English-speaking
countries have a common-law system. Most other countries have a
civil-law system. Many countries combine features of both systems.
Common-law systems are based largely on case law--that is, on court
decisions. The common-law system began in England many hundreds of
years ago. The English called their system the common law because it
applied throughout the land.
English common law developed from the rules and principles that judges
traditionally followed in deciding court cases. Judges based their
decisions on legal precedents--that is, on earlier court rulings in
similar cases. But judges could expand precedents to make them suit
particular cases. They could also overrule (reject) any precedents
that they considered to be in error or outdated. In this way, judges
changed many laws over the years. The common law thus came to be law
made by judges.
However, some common-law principles proved too precious to change. For
example, a long line of hard-won precedents defended the rights and
liberties of citizens against the unjust use of government power.
England--and the other common-law countries--have kept these
principles almost unchanged. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the
United States, and other countries that were colonized by England
based their legal systems on the common law.
Case law is still important in common-law countries. However, the
lawmaking role of legislatures in these countries has increased
greatly during the 1900's. The changes have dealt with such matters as
employee management relations, workers' wages and hours, and
environmental protection. Nevertheless, common-law countries have kept
the basic feature of the English legal system, which is the power of
judges to make laws. In addition, constitutional law in these
countries continues the common-law tradition of defending the people's
rights and liberties.
Civil-law systems are based mainly on statutes (legislative acts). The
majority of civil-law countries have assembled their statutes into one
or more carefully organized collections called codes. Most modern law
codes can be traced back to the famous code commissioned by the Roman
emperor Justinian I in the A.D. 500's. Justinian's code updated and
summarized the whole of Roman law. It was called the Corpus Juris
Civilis, meaning Body of Civil Law. For this reason, legal systems
that are based on the Roman system of statute and code law are known
as civil-law systems. This use of the term civil law should not be
confused with its use as an alternative term for criminal law.
In civil-law countries, such as France, Germany, and Mexico, the
statutes, not the courts, provide the final answer to any question of
law. Judges may refer to precedents in making their decisions. But
they must base every decision on a particular statute and not on
precedent alone.
Other systems. Many countries have patterned their legal system after
both civil law and common law. For example, Japan and most
Latin-American nations have assembled all their private law into a
code. But public law in these countries has been greatly influenced by
common-law principles, especially those that guarantee the rights and
liberties of the people.
In China, where a billion people still live under Communist rule, the
Ministry of Justice and the court system administer public, economic,
and criminal laws. A procedure exists for handling private law cases,
but no private law has been adopted by the state. Laws must conform to
the Communist policies of China's leaders.
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