Particularities between the Civil Law and Common Law
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Legislation and Jurisprudence
For both the Civil and Common law traditions, the legislation serves as the paramount source of law.
In a Civilian tradition, where certainty and predictability are valued goals in regulating society, codes and statutes play a major role in providing an overview of the law.
On the other hand, in the Common law tradition, jurisprudence is central to the system. The role of judges in changing and developing the law on a case-by-case basis has allowed in-depth coverage of selective areas of the law.
In Japan for example, as a Civil law country, the Seibunhō (成文法) or written law is used as opposed to the case law in the U.S. legal system.
The Civil Law and Common Law traditions have their own distinct particularities as a legal system. Though, in today’s world where the focus on global issues expands across borders, the challenge to gain mutual understanding of these two systems has never been more significant.
With lawyers engaging in practice that involve transnational deals, exposure and hands-on experience to both systems have increasingly gained prominence in the legal practice.
*The explanation on the Common Law and Civil Law tradition used here is based from an article titled Comparative Legal Traditions – Introducing the Common Law to Civil Lawyers in Asia.