Civil Laws
Understanding the diverse system and tools for legal processes that exist throughout the world can be a helpful way for understanding the legal system that exists in your own country, as well as in making decisions about moves to, travel in or business dealing with nations that have varying understandings of the rights and services that can be legally expected. One way in which to achieve this level of understanding is by gaining a familiarity with the history that has led to the formation and present day shape of various legal systems. In understanding the basic definitions given to different systems of law, one part of history worthy of study is that of the philosophy of administering law known as civil law, which is one of the oldest systems of law that still exercises a tangible effect on the world. Civil laws can be traced back most distantly to the era of the Roman Empire.
The institutions and practices through which civil law is expressed and implemented ultimately dates back to the Code of Justinian, but it has also been much changed since by the addition of ideas and methods from such sources as Germanic, religiously administered and feudally based systems, all of which have been major factors in the development of civil law through history. In looking at the “genealogy” of various systems of law around the world, civil law can be most usefully and relevantly contrasted with the system known as common law, which is heavily associated with the administrative practices of another, later widespread imperial power, that of the British Empire, and appears in many regions and countries that at one point were under its control. Systems based on civil laws, by contrast, are found predominantly in such areas as African and Asian regions and in many Latin American countries.
The initial principle of the civil law concept is that of providing the citizens whose behavior is governed by the system of civil laws with an understandable and available written document explaining these laws. Furthermore, the written source for civil laws exercises the decisive influence over the ways in which they may be implemented. During the Roman era, the civil law was generally granted a greater measure of flexibility as was required for the purposes of the Empire’s administration that allowed administrators to blend the specific precepts contained in civil laws with the local customs and rules of the area in which they were being implemented. The modern concept of the civil law became a more readily available reality during the Enlightenment era in European philosophy, which required that laws in order to be considered valid had to be guaranteed of the principle of absolute correctness. This requirement made it necessary to codify civil laws more thoroughly than had been the case before. Germany later adopted a system based on civil laws during the 19th century, when it was experiencing a rise in international influence, and thus brought the concept to bear on many colonial subjects and allies.