The Civil Law and the Common Law: Some Points of Comparison

The interest of jurists in legal systems other than their own and in comparative law has been a matter of long tradition. At any rate, during the twentieth century and especially from about thirty years ago, there has been an extraordinary growth of this interest. Now, with the Common Market and all the other expanding programs of international trade and commerce, it is impossible to overemphasize the importance of understanding the nature and function of legal systems of other countries. In the legal history of Western Europe and of the countries that received their legal systems from these sources, one finds the establishment of the two great legal systems which are often made the basis of comparative law studies. This does not overlook the other legal systems outside of the continental civil law and the common law of the Anglo-Saxon countries. There are of course not only the different legal systems of the Asiatic countries but also within the European continent itself there is the legal system which has long been in effect in the Scandinavian countries, and there are also the more recent developments in the Soviet countries. All legal systems have the same purpose of regulating and harmonizing the human activity within their respective societies, and in each society the legal system forms part of the culture and civilization as well as of the history and the life of its people. The events of their respective history have led toward certain fundamental similarities and differences in their legal systems. In the countries of Western civilization, the two best-known systems are the civil law and the common law, particularly as exemplified in France and in England. The concentration in this article on the civil law and the common law is not intended to derogate from the importance and values of other legal systems. At the same time, it must also be recognized that there are many differences, for example, between the laws of France and Germany, as well as between England and the United States. Nevertheless, in each of these two great systems, civil law and common