Common Law Characteristics
1. Outline the main characteristics of a common law legal system.
“Common law dates from the 11th century when William I set up Royal Courts to apply a uniform (common) system of law across the whole of England” (Hughes & Ferrett 2011). Until that time there were laws that were differently interpreted from one city to another. “Common law is generally uncodified system. This means that there is no comprehensive compilation of legal rules and statutes. While common law does rely on some scattered statutes, which are legislative decisions, it is largely based on precedent, meaning the judicial decisions that have already been made in similar cases” (Robbins n.d.)
Common law is case law made by judges based on similar decisions of courts. The
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Outline the main characteristics of a Civil Law legal system
The Civil Law has its origin in the ancient Rome and it was the main attribute to the Roman civilization.
“Civil Law is a codified system. Countries with civil law system have comprehensive, continuously updated legal codes that specify all the matters capable of being brought before a court, the applicable procedure, and the appropriate punishment for each offense” (Robbins n.d.)
Every country has its own sets of laws, rules, principles and regulation based on different matters. It means that every country has a written constitution based on specific codes and only the legislative enactments must be applied. Civil law judges apply the codes that are written by scholars and enacted by legislators. The judges may also check legal treaties that are similar to the current case. Civil law system presumes that every single problem has its own solution (Civil law
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It has two main parts: private and public law. Private law is concerned with all the civil and commercial matters (e.g. marriage, divorce or contractual matters). Public law deals with the government matters which derive in constitutional law, criminal law and administrative law.
In Civil law system, the judge has the responsibility to collect all the evidences and to arrange meetings and hearings with the witnesses (usually in private).
3. Critically analyze the comparative advantages of each system.
Common Law and Civil Law are two main legal systems that are very different. They each have a different background that developed their own features, their basic principles and how those principles should be applied.
The historical origin of Common Law and Civil Law
The origin of Common Law is in England while the Civil Law has the origins in the Roman Empire.
Countries where were developed
Common Law has developed in England, South Africa and
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