The Legal Systems We Live In Today

There are two main types of legal systems in the world: Common Law and Civil law. Civil Law is characterized by thinking on the basis of general and abstract provisions. Common Law is guided by similar cases that happened in the past. In this video we explore both, and learn what happens if you are walking down the street and suddenly a roof tile lands on your head.

This video script was written by Dr. Nicole Leifeld. Thank you!

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COLLABORATORS
Script: Dr. Nicole Leifeld
Editor: Jonas Koblin
Artist: Pascal Gaggelli
Voice: Mithril
Coloring: Nalin
Editing: Peera Lertsukittipongsa
Sound Design: Miguel Ojeda
Fact checking: Ludovico Di Chanaz
Production management: Selina Bador

SOUNDTRACKS
Toys Are Alive - Studio Le Bus
Nice Toys - Studio Le Bus

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SOURCES

CLASS ACTIVITY
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CHAPTER
00:00 Introduction
00:56 Continental European legal system
01:55 Anglo-American legal system
02:47 Civil law
03:10 Common law
03:55 What do you think?
04:14 Patrons credit
04:00 Ending

#sproutslearning #legalsystem #civillaw #commonlaw

[nadinevaessen]

This 5 minute video taught me more than a 2 hour lecture

[wiseone]

South Africa has a mixed legal system - a hybrid of Roman Dutch civilian law, English common law, customary law and religious personal law.

[zzing]

As presented civil law has an advantage in that it is easier to look up the law. Case law is very hard to look up.

[LegaleseLiteracy]

Just for clarification the US legal system basically uses both civil and common law. For accidents like the one in the video there are tort laws that give specific elements that need to be met to win. This is just like civil law in other countries. You can use other cases to help your case but the legal elements from the statute must apply first. However, if there is a constitutional issue we almost use common law exclusively.

[obnoxiousNoxy]

Also important to mention is that no legal system in the world is pure civil law or common law. There's pretty much always some sort of intermingling going on. Germany's legal system for example is mostly civil law but also has some common law elements, like the possibility to deviate from codified law if the general rule fails to produce an equitable result in an individual case (the instrument of equity or "Billigkeit" in German).

[rexi]

Judges in Common Law can also use "overruling" if they want to deviate from an earlier binding decision. In that case, the judge basically rules that the ruling and/or the reasons for the ruling are wrong because of reasons he must explain and build his decision upon. One of the reasons for overruling is if you think that society and rules within it have changed throughout the course of time so much, that upholding the precedent is no longer acceptable due to those changes. This refers to the idea that the law is living and changes and adapts through time to the society, who is also evolving.

[pranshuagarwal]

Here we in India follow mostly common law systems but there are instances where we get to witness civil law elements as well.

[lppl]

I am from Germany. And maybe I am not objective but I think the Civil law is much better. What happens if there is no case like mine before?
And what is if the decision in the case before was just wrong, would they decide wrong everytime again just because the first judge in this type of cases judged like he judged. I think this is not really clever. I think its much better to decide from case to case because every case is different. And its important that there are rules we can use in our court.

[VestinVestin]

Wow, whatever flaws the Civil Law system might have, the Common Law system sounds like pure insanity. It's like the difference between studying a mathematical equation versus listening to your drunk uncle. Looking up what happened to some peasant two hundreds of years ago and then going off of that because it's kinda-sorta similar sounds like the sort of thing that only maintains a veneer of respectability for being a storied tradition.

[michaelmcchesney]

One small correction. Common law is practiced in 49 of the 50 United States. Louisiana practices civil law because of its history as a French colony. In this case, the common law doctrine is found on Justice Clarence Thomas' license plate. His license plate reads (or read when he visited my law school in 1996) Res Ipsa. That is short for Res Ipsa Loquitur or "the thing itself speaks." It is a way to hold someone liable for an accident without requiring the plaintiff to prove exactly how the defendant was negligent. This doctrine holds that if an accident, more likely than not, would not have happened without negligence and the defendant had control of the premises or the object that caused the accident, the defendant would be liable.

[fakergains]

this video is amazing and really helpful ! I love the format

[turlstreet]

Because it is precedent-based, the 'thinking' in common law decisions tends to be more consistent overall, without the abrupt reversals or changes in direction that can sometimes happen in French and German courts. Common law judgements tend to come through (or be dismissed) more quickly as well. This is why common law is generally regarded to be more business friendly, as companies can sue each other while having a good idea of what the outcome will be before they go to court (or, conversely, decide to arbitrate instead). All of the traditional global 'business hubs' are consequently common law locations: London, Hong Kong, New York, Singapore, etc.
An additional benefit of common law is that it is more independent of the government, being a sequence of cases decided in a 'bottom-up' fashion by different court decisions. This is why it is generally associated with more democratic countries, whereas 'top-down' civil law has been more effectively used in authoritarian ones (the state or party chairman simply handing down new codes for judges to follow). Those common law countries which became more authoritarian after independence from Britain often chose to discard certain protections of the common law (e.g., Singapore abolishing jury trials in 1970), or move over to civil law entirely. Juries, specifically, are a great 'bottom-up' protection of the common people, because 12 'peers' (average citizens) are likely to acquit a defendant whom they feel is being condemned by a single judge who has been appointed (or bribed) by the government (this is fairly typical in countries with high levels of corruption). 12 individuals selected at random are far harder to 'buy out' than a single corrupt judge.

[EmeraldBoateng]

i'm from Ghana and we practice common law

[Jiggabyte_Alpha]

The Philippines uses a hybrid of civil and common law as a result of colonizations by both Spain and the United States. One region in Mindanao predominantly populated with Muslims adopted elements of Islamic law, especially family and financial law.

[Usmang]

I Lives in Pakistan and Civil laws are being practiced here. With the exception of common law essestials were also added.

[CoffeenSpice]

So as I understand it the difference is who makes the law: a politician in civil law and a judge in common law...

[drusillialeavel]

In France both are in use. Except common law is called "la jurice prudence". It is when the law in the first place fails to fairly judge the situation the case is taken, in a higher court and examined and is balanced if it is right or wrong. And if it is the fault of the defender it becomes a common law.

[andraspalatinus]

Civil law is better, because you can look it up, you can also look up cases, where the law was applied, so Civil Law has both, but it is more likely follow trends, which could not be said about the Common Law. For example in Germany, where the jewish rules were applied, it was much easier to adapt to those, then it would be in the US, where the precedents could not let something like that happen all of the sudden. At the end it all comes down to one thing: common sense and good will. If a german judge got those, he or she would not apply the jewish rules, or any rule, which was lacking the 2 mentioned above. So my point is civil law+common sense+good will is as close to perfection as law can get.

[zarkasyiamir]

Common law is a law made by the judge or its called as unwritten law hence the judicial precedent is using in terms of judge-made law

[mrMacGoover]

Common law is built upon wisdom of learning from past cases and acts within the interests and well being of the individual.