The legal systems of nations across the globe are split into dual categories: civil law and common law system. The basic norms and concepts of civil law are written in legislation and codes which are adopted by the courts. Due to this, legislations prevail with case law aiding as a secondary source of legislation. In contrary, the parliament has primarily made the law via decisions of court with little regard for a conceptual structure.
Moreover, civil law is originated on coded that contain rationally connected regulations and concepts, starting with primary principles and progressing to specific legislations. On contrary, common law starts with the actual matters and compares it to the comparable or same lawful concerns that have been addressed by various courts in prior decided matters and induction from these relevant precedents derive the binding legal rule.
Civil law is binding all over the courts, whether it is HC, SC, district, or local court in Australia while laws formed by common law matters are needed to be obeyed by subordinate courts, not superior courts. In applying the civil law, the chief task of the courts is to make verdicts on matters by interpretating and applying the civil law. In applying the common law, the chief focus of the courts is to resolve and decide on conflicts between parties. Besides, it gives guidance to assist courts settle alike conflicts in the future.
Australia, India, England, Canada, the United States are usually recognised as common law nations as they were all once colonies or subjects of Great Britain, they have often taken the common law’s tradition. Civil law nations contain nearly all of Europe (e.g., Spain, France, and German), Japan, and China, and all of South America with exception of Guyana.
Journals & Articles
Gomes, L., 2018. The Influences of Common Law on the Brazilian New Code of Civil Procedure. SSRN Electronic Journal,.
NG, K. and JACOBSON, B., 2017. How Global is the Common Law? A Comparative Study of Asian Common Law Systems – Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. Asian Journal of Comparative Law, 12(2), pp.209-232.
Singh, J., 2021. Difference between civil and criminal law - - Australia. [online] Mondaq. Available at: <https://www.mondaq.com/australia/criminal-law/1134312/difference-between-civil-and-criminal-law> [Accessed 7 July 2022].
Zhai, T. and Chang, Y., 2019. The Contribution of China’s Civil Law to Sustainable Development: Progress and Prospects. Sustainability, 11(1), p.294.
