German Common Law Vs Roman Law

Lawyers continue to represent the interests of their clients in civil proceedings, but have a less central role. However, as in common law systems, their functions generally consist of advising clients on legal matters and preparing pleadings for submission to the court. But the importance of oral proceedings, court presentations and active advocacy in court is diminished compared to a common law system. In addition, non-procedural legal tasks, such as preparing wills and drafting contracts, may be left to quasi-legal professionals who serve businesses and individuals and who may not have post-graduate legal training or be admitted to court. then “lectured” by the judge, who is a little more flexible than in a civil law system, in order to create an appropriate remedy at the end of the case. In these cases, lawyers are tried and try to convince others on legal and factual points and play a very active role in legal proceedings. And unlike some civil courts, common law countries like the United States prohibit people other than a fully licensed attorney from preparing legal documents of any kind for another person or organization. It is only a matter for lawyers. Roman law also referred to the legal system that was applied in most parts of Western Europe until the end of the 18th century. In Germany, Roman legal practice persisted longer under the Holy Roman Empire (963-1806). Roman law thus served as the basis for legal practice throughout Western Continental Europe, as well as in most of the former colonies of these European nations, including Latin America, as well as in Ethiopia. English and Anglo-American customary law was also influenced by Roman law, particularly in their Latin legal glossary (e.B. stare decisis, culpa in contrahendo, pacta sunt servanda).

[1] Eastern Europe was also influenced by the jurisprudence of the Corpus Juris Civilis, especially in countries such as medieval Romania (Wallachia, Moldova and a few other medieval provinces/historical regions), which created a new system, a mixture of Roman and local law. Eastern European law was also influenced by the “peasant law” of the medieval Byzantine legal system. Legal systems around the world are characterized by their own unique rules and regulations that best reflect and regulate the behavior of the society in which they find themselves. Overall, however, all countries follow either a common law system or a Roman or civil legal system. Some countries have even developed a mixed legal system consisting of a combination of the two. This is called a mixed legal system. Civil law determines the relationship between natural and/or legal persons, i.e. those who do not fall into a particular category (such as traders or employees).

The most important reference in this field is the Civil Code (BGB), which consists of 5 main parts: the general/general part, the law of obligations, property law, family law and inheritance law. Eventually, the Norman conquest in 1066 produced a class of people who spoke French but wrote the laws in Latin. William the Conqueror was the first king to try to unite all these different customs and traditions in a unified legal system that the whole country had to follow, and thus spawned the term that this law is known today, that is, “customary law”. Only England and the Nordic countries did not participate in the full reception of Roman law. One reason for this is that by the time Roman law was rediscovered, the English legal system was more advanced than its continental counterparts. Therefore, the practical benefits of Roman law were less obvious to English practitioners than to continental lawyers. As a result, the English common law system developed alongside Roman civil law, with its practitioners trained at the Inns of Court in London, rather than obtaining degrees in canon or civil law at Oxford or Cambridge universities. Elements of Roman canon law were present in England in the ecclesiastical courts and, less directly, through the development of the system of equity. In addition, some concepts of Roman law have found their place in the common law. Especially in the early 19th century, English jurists and judges were willing to borrow rules and ideas from continental jurists and directly from Roman law. The main difference between the two systems is that in common law countries, case law – in the form of published legal opinions – is of paramount importance, while in civil law systems, codified laws prevail.

But these divisions are not as clear as they may seem. In fact, many countries use a mixture of features of the general and civil law systems. To understand the differences between these systems, one must first understand their historical underpinnings. The clearest basis for distinguishing between the general law system and the civil law system is that customary law is governed by formal ordinances called precedents or earlier judicial decisions, while civil law is governed by codified laws. This article was written by Ms. Nikara Liesha Fernandez of Christ University Law School, Bangalore. This article is a comparative analysis of the evolution and differences in the general and Roman legal systems that prevail in different countries of the world. It is apparent from the above analysis that, while there are many differences between the common law and the civil law system, these differences are due to a procedural nature or the nature of the methodology used rather than to important factors. Ultimately, the goal of these two systems is the same thing: to create justice. Therefore, it would not be fair to say that one system is better than the other. Modernization and globalization significantly reduce the differences between customary and civil law, as cases involving more than one jurisdiction deal with the issue of choice of law, which often uses a combination of customary and civil law, depending on the circumstances of the cases. Therefore, there will certainly be a time in the future when each system may have to remove one page from the other`s book to best suit certain situations in the future.

The original source of the common law system dates back to the English monarchy, which issued formal orders called “writs” when justice was to be done. Since pleadings were not sufficient to cover all situations, fair courts were eventually created to hear complaints and develop appropriate remedies based on just principles from many sources of authority (such as Roman law and “natural” law). As these decisions were collected and published, the courts were able to seek out previous opinions and apply them to ongoing cases. That is how the common law developed. By the middle of the 16th century, rediscovered Roman law dominated the legal practice of many European countries. .