Common Law VS Civil Law

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How they work and main differences

I belive this may have been posted before, but it seems to me that even if that’s the case, the topic deserves a bump, am I right?

Thanks for any comments, even if it’s to tell me how I f’d up and this is actually r/rickandmorty or something stupid

Much love 💜

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2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Common Law is the system of law that comes about because of judges decisions instead of or in addition to explicitly written laws and statutes. It’s the idea of “precedent” or that if one judge makes a decision other judges have to honor that decision instead of basing any future decisions purely off of the written laws they’re referencing. This is how you get the idea that restricting, say, abortion or the sale of handguns is “unconstitutional” even though the constitution itself doesn’t say so — there is legal precedent from judges interpreting the constitution that say, and that ruling is binding on subsequent judges. Common law is in contrast to things like the Napoleonic system seen in France. Common law is the British system (historically speaking).

Civil law (which in America follows the common law system … they aren’t mutually exclusive or in opposition to each other) is the system of rules that govern how people have to interact privately, as opposed to with society at large or the government (criminal law). Examples of Civil Law include the laws that govern contracts or basically anything that resulted in a lawsuit with a payout to a individual instead of a government fine or jail time.

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