I'm Professor Claire Germain from the
University of Florida, College of Law.
And, today, we're going to talk about
legal
tradition, the Common Law, and the Civil
Law.
You may have heard that the United States
is called, a Common Law Country.
Now, what this mean in this, today's
world.
As you can see, from this wonderful map,
from the University of Ottawa, it's color
coded, so you can see, for instance, that
the Common Law countries, it started in
England.
And then it was exported to North America.
To United States, Canada.
And then to Australia, New Zealand.
Parts of Asia, India.
Parts of Africa.
Basically the Common Law tradition is used
in the English speaking world.
Now, there is another tradition.
The Civil Law tradition which is color
coded in red.
Civil law started in Europe, in
continental Europe, and then
was spread out to Asia, parts of Asia,
part of Africa.
You know, usually corresponding to the
colonial powers.
And then to Central and Latin America.
The Common Law and Civil Law traditions
are not the only traditions.
You also have some Customary Law legal
traditions, some religious traditions like
Muslim Law.
So mixed system which have inherited parts
of the Civil Law,
part of the Common Law and some of the
legal traditions.
But the Common Law and the Civil Law
traditions
are the ones that we're going to focus on
today.
So first, the Civil Law Tradition because
it's the oldest tradition.
For that to explain it we have to go back
to Roman times, to Roman Law.
And you can see here an image of Emperor
Justinian who rules over, who ruled over
the Byzantine Empire.
And in 533, or thereabout in the sixth
century, it commissioned a codification
of the principles of Roman Law which was
called the code, Justinian Code.
What happened then is, the code, it was in
the sixth
century, the document was kind of lost
over the next several centuries.
But then came the beginning of the Middle
Ages.
And towards the end of the 11th century,
and in the 12th century and 13th century,
the Roman law text was rediscovered by
scholars in the Medieval universities.
First in Bologna, Italy, then in Paris, in
France, as you can see on this nice
picture.
So, in Civil Law countries, the law
was developed as a scholarly activity by
professors.
And even today, if you go to a French law
school, to an Italian law school,
to a Spanish law school, the teaching
methods
will resemble what was happening in the
middle ages.
Lectures, and students learn the law by
reading treatises.
Let's skip over a few centuries.
And in the 19th century, at the time of
the nation-states, some countries decided
to codify their laws.
So you will see, you saw the French civil
code in 1802.
The German civil code in 1900.
So, this codification is also a symbol, a
characteristic of the Civil Law tradition.
Now, let's turn to the Common Law
tradition.
It's based on English law, and it was
developed, the law was developed,
not on the basis of exploring treatises,
but on a case by case basis.
And we have to go back all the way to
1066, and the famous Battle of
Hastings, which is represented in the
Normandy, the Norman, Bayeux Tapestry.
What happened then is William the
Conqueror, who
was the Duke of Normandy invaded England
and
imported his lords, a strong central
administration, and
the beginning of the Royal Courts of
England.
Then one of his descendants, Henry the 2nd
Plantagenet, decided to install permanent
royal courts in London.
So, and it became the lawyers, the young
law students, were trained
in law not in the medieval universities,
but directly at the courts.
And at the Inns of court, and if you want
to
know why they were called Inns, it's
because the students lived there.
So a common law, law was born out of
procedure, out of the court system not in
books.
And students today, they learn the law by
reading
casebooks in American law schools, and by
studying precedents.
So I talked about law as tradition.
Now I would like to talk for a minute
about law as language.
If you watch TV shows such as Miami Vice,
or other TV or movies, did you know that
many of the words that you hear, come from
medieval Law French, or Norman French.
Let me give you some examples, trespass,
voir dire, grand jury, petit jury,
plaintiff.
Why is there like a combination, breaking
and entering, will and testament.
It all comes from old French.
Now, today there is a convergence between
the Civil Law and Common Law traditions.
Because of different factors, including
the
emergence of supra, supranational legal
norms.
And the blurring of civil and common law,
concepts, as to the results achieved.
So some people talk instead of, Western
legal system, or Western legal tradition.
There's still significant differences in
the mentalities of
the lawyers, the legal reasoning and legal
education.
Now this was just a short introduction,
and I've asked you
some questions about why this words,
breaking and entering and so on.
So, if you want to know more, I invite you
to listen to my next
lecture which will be on legal traditions,
the Common Law, and the Civil Law.
So, see you next time.
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