The contemporary national legal systems are generally based on one of four major legal traditions: civil law, common law, customary law, religious law or combinations of these. However, the legal system of each country is shaped by its unique history and so incorporates individual variations. The science that studies law at the level of legal systems is called comparative law.
Both civil (also known as Roman) and common law systems can be considered the most widespread in the world: civil law because it is the most widespread by landmass and by population overall, and common law because the greatest number of people employ it compared to any single civil law system.
Civil law
The source of law that is recognized as authoritative is codifications in a constitution or statute passed by legislature, to amend a code. While the concept of codification dates back to the Code of Hammurabi in Babylon ca. 1790 BC, civil law systems derive from the Roman Empire and, more particularly, the Corpus Juris Civilis issued by the Emperor Justinian ca. AD 529. This was an extensive reform of the law in the Byzantine Empire, bringing it together into codified documents. Civil law was also partly influenced by religious laws such as Canon law and Islamic law. Civil law today, in theory, is interpreted rather than developed or made by judges. Only legislative enactments (rather than legal precedents, as in common law) are considered legally binding.
Scholars of comparative law and economists promoting the legal origins theory usually subdivide civil law into distinct groups: French civil law: in France, the Benelux countries, Italy, Romania, Spain, and former colonies of those countries, mainly in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East; German civil law: in Germany, Austria, Russia, Switzerland, Estonia, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Portugal and its former colonies, Turkey, and East Asian countries including Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (Republic of China); Scandinavian civil law: in Northern Europe such as Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. As historically integrated into the Scandinavian cultural sphere, Finland and Iceland also inherited the system, although especially Iceland has its own legal roots. Scandinavian or Nordic civil law exhibits the least similar traits to other civil law systems. It is sometimes considered a legal system in its own right, despite its reception being mainly from German civil law.
However, some of these legal systems are often and more correctly said to be of a hybrid nature: Napoleonic to Germanistic influence (Italian civil law) The Italian civil code of 1942 replaced the original one of 1865, introducing germanistic elements due to the geopolitical alliances of the time. The Italian approach has been imitated by other countries including Portugal (1966), the Netherlands (1992), Lithuania (2000), Brazil (2002) and Argentina (2014). Most of them have innovations introduced by the Italian legislation, including the unification of the civil and commercial codes.
Germanistic to Napoleonic influence (Swiss civil law) The Swiss civil code is considered to be mainly influenced by the German civil code and partly by the French civil code. The civil code of the Republic of Turkey is a slightly modified version of the Swiss code, adopted in 1926 during Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's presidency as part of the government's progressive reforms and secularization.
A comprehensive list of countries that base their legal system on a codified civil law follows: +Country Description AlbaniaBased on Napoleonic civil law.The Civil Code of the Republic of Albania, 1991 AngolaBased on Portuguese civil law. ArgentinaThe Spanish legal tradition had a great influence on the Civil Code of Argentina, basically a work of the Argentine jurist Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield, who dedicated five years of his life to this task. The Civil Code came into effect on 1 January 1871. Beyond the influence of the Spanish legal tradition, the Argentine Civil Code was also inspired by the Draft of the Brazilian Civil Code, the Draft of the Spanish Civil Code of 1851, the Napoleonic Code, and the Chilean Civil Code. The sources of this Civil Code also include various theoretical legal works, mainly of the great French jurists of the 19th century. It was the first Civil Law to adopt, as its cornerstone consciously, the distinction between i. rights and obligations and ii. real property rights, thus distancing itself from the French model.
The Argentine Civil Code was also in effect in Paraguay under a Paraguayan law of 1880 until the new Civil Code came into force in 1987.
In Argentina, this 1871 Civil Code remained in force until August 2015, when it was replaced by the new Código Civil y Comercial de la Nación.
During the second half of the 20th century, the German legal theory became increasingly influential in Argentina. AndorraCourts apply the customary laws of Andorra, supplemented with Roman law and customary Catalan law.Andorra (11/07) ArmeniaBased on German civil law. ArubaBased on Dutch civil law AustriaBased on Roman and Germanic Civil law. The Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (ABGB) of 1811. Both Roman and Austrian law traditions influence the ABGB. Like the Napoleonic Code, it is based on the ideals of freedom and equality before the law. AzerbaijanBased on German, French, Russian, and traditional Azerbaijani Law BelarusBased on Germanic Civil law (administrative, criminal codes) BelgiumThe Napoleonic Code is still in use, although it is heavily modified (especially concerning family law) BeninBased on Napoleonic Civil law. BoliviaInfluenced by the Napoleonic Code Bosnia and HerzegovinaInfluenced by Austrian law. The Swiss civil law (Zivilgesetzbuch) was a model for the Law on Obligations of 1978. BrazilBased on German, Italian, French, and Portuguese law. However, in 2004, the Federal Constitution was amended to grant the Supreme Federal Court authority to issue binding precedents (súmulas vinculantes) to settle controversies involving constitutional law. This mechanism echoes the stare decisis principle typically found in common law systems. Bulgaria Germanic and Roman law systems influence the Civil Law system Burkina FasoBased on the French civil law Burundi Based on the French civil law ChadBased on the French civil law People's Republic of ChinaBased on Germanic Civil law and French Civil law, also with influences from the Soviet Socialist law from Soviet Union Republic of the CongoBased on the Napoleonic Civil law. Democratic Republic of the CongoBased on Belgian civil law Cambodia Cape VerdeBased on Portuguese civil law Central African Republic Based on the French civil law system ChileThe Chilean Civil Code, based on the Napoleonic Civil Law, was also heavily influenced by the Spanish legal tradition. In turn, the Chilean civil code, to a large degree, influenced the drafting of the civil codes of other Latin-American states. For instance, the codes of Ecuador (1861) and Colombia (1873) constituted faithful reproductions of the Chilean code, but for very few exceptions. The compiler of the Civil Code of Chile, Venezuelan Andrés Bello, worked for its completion for almost 30 years, using elements of the Spanish law on the one hand, and of other Western laws, especially of the French one, on the other. It is noted that he consulted and used all the codes issued up to then, dating back to the era of Justinian.