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Civil law has a long history, dating all the way back to Roman times, and remains the dominant legal tradition in many countries including Central and South America and most of Europe. Civil law tradition was gathered into a comprehensive summary including all facets of Roman law by the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century, but this was based on centuries of Roman tradition. It became the basis of what we call civil law today.
In the United States, common law is what most people think of when they think of law. Common law is adversarial, whereas civil law is inquisitorial. In civil law, judges do not interpret the law, thus creating "case law," or a history of judgments. In the United States, in civil law, the judges look at the facts and determine how the facts compare to established laws. Since civil law is not the prominent legal system in the United States, many lawyers and even judges have only superficial knowledge of it. In American law schools, common law is emphasized. In civil law, however, the judge oversees and supervises any fact-finding. The process of gathering facts is markedly more complicated under common law. Through the discovery process, each side takes depositions from witnesses. They gather evidence and keep careful track of who handles it and where it is stored. In a preliminary hearing, the prosecuting attorney must convince the presiding judge that in fact the prosecution has a strong enough case to bring to trial. In civil law as practiced in the United States, the court proceedings are more informal, and the judge makes an independent judgment about the worthiness of any evidence.
How civil cases are heard is affected strongly by the fact that in the United States, civil cases have no jury. The people involved count on the judge's ability to evaluate not only evidence but testimony as well. The rules for testimony…
Civil law plays a diminished role in the United States when compared to many other countries. Where common law operates on the assumption that laws can be interpreted in varying ways depending on circumstances, civil law assume only one correct answer to a legal question. For instance, if a person sues a neighbor in small claims court because the neighbor's dog bit him, the judge will make a determination based on the community's laws regarding control of animals and private property issues. Did the person walk onto the neighbor's property and enter a gated yard, and then get bit? Or was the person walking down the sidewalk when the dog attacked, not on a leash in violation of the leash law? If the community allows people to keep their pets off a leash in a fenced area and the victim entered that area uninvited, then the bittern person will probably lose. If he was walking down the street minding his own business and the dog was off leash, he will probably win. If he taunted the dog, the outcome will be up to the judge's discretion, but might say there are no winners: the victim shouldn't have taunted the dog, but the dog should have been on a leash.
SOURCE:
Apple, James G, and Deyling, Robert P. "A Primer on the Civil-Law System." Federal Judicial Center. Accessed via the Internet 1/12/05. <http://wwwapps.ups.com/etracking/tracking.cgi?TypeOfInquiryNumber=T&; InquiryNumber1=1Z675YE00394304696>
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