BLAW 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Precedent
Document Summary
Systems of law: civil law and common law around the world, two basic legal systems exist, civil law and common law. In brief, civil law emphasizes legislation, while common law emphasizes decisions handed down by the courts. Civil law is the system of law derived from roman law. Its focus is on the development of a comprehensive legislated code. Civil law applies to only a few southern states in the united states (e. g. , louisiana), as well as to mexico, continental europe, most of scotland, much of africa, and all of south and. Common law is the system of law in most of the. English-speaking world and many nonenglish-speaking countries that were once part of the british empire, such as india, pakistan, and the caribbean. Within canada, all provinces and territories except quebec have adopted common law. Common law is based on precedent, the recorded reasons given by judges for their decisions and adopted by judges in later cases.
