• Mary Ann Glendon
• Paolo Carozza
• Max Rheinstein

Civil law, also called Romano-Germanic law, the law of continental Europe, based on an admixture of Roman, Germanic, ecclesiastical, feudal, commercial, and customary law. European civil law has been adopted in much of Latin America as well as in parts of Asia and Africa and is to be distinguished from the common law of the Anglo-American countries.

The term civil law has other meanings not employed in this article. The term jus civile, meaning “civil law,” for example, was used in ancient Rome to distinguish the law found exclusively in the city of Rome from the jus gentium, the law of all nations, found throughout the empire. The phrase has also been used to distinguish private law, governing the relations between individuals, from public law and criminal law. Finally, in the philosophy of law, civil law sometimes refers to the positive law of the state, as distinct from natural law.

The Historical Rise Of Civil Law

In the 5th and 6th centuries CE, western and central Europe were dominated by Germanic peoples, especially those who had overrun the Roman Empire. Among them were the Anglo-Saxons of England, the Franks of western Germany and northern France, the Burgundians, the Visigoths of southern France and Spain, and the Lombards of Italy. Although the traditions of Roman law endured for some time, Germanic customs came to prevail in most regions. In the Middle Ages these customs underwent vigorous growth in an effort to satisfy the complex needs stemming from the development of feudalism and chivalry, the growth of cities, Eastern colonization, increasing trade, and an increasingly refined culture. Among the many strands that went into the weaving of the complex pattern of medieval law, the customs of merchants and the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church were of special significance. It was principally through the canon law that the concepts and ideas of ancient Rome continued to make their presence felt even when, as a whole, Roman law itself had been forgotten. In the late 11th century, Roman law was rediscovered and made the subject matter of learned study and teaching by scholars in northern Italy, especially at Bologna. With the increasing demand for trained judges and administrators, first by the Italian city-republics and then by princes in other localities, students flocked to Bologna from all over Europe, until the study and teaching of law were gradually taken over by local universities. As a result of this process, Roman law penetrated into the administration of justice north of the Alps, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, where the Roman-law influence became particularly strong.

In the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, the reception of Roman law was facilitated because its emperors cherished the idea of being the direct successors of the Roman Caesars; Roman law, collected in the Code of Justinian (Corpus Juris Civilis) by the emperor Justinian I between 527 and 565, could be regarded as still being in effect simply because it was the imperial law. Decisive for the reception, however, was the superiority of the specialized training of Roman-law jurists over the empiricist methods of lay judges and practitioners of the local laws. Equally decisive was the superiority of the Roman-canonical type of procedure, with its rational rules of evidence, over the local forms of procedure involving proof by ordeal, battle, and other irrational methods. Nowhere, however, did Roman law completely supplant the local laws, and, as far as the content of the law was concerned, various amalgams developed. Roman law strongly influenced the law of contracts and torts; canon law achieved supremacy in the field of marriage; and combinations of Germanic, feudal, and Roman traditions developed in matters of property and succession, or inheritance. The conceptual formulations in which the norms and principles of the law were expressed, as well as the procedural forms in which justice was administered, were also strongly Roman. The system that thus emerged was called the jus commune. In actual practice it varied from place to place, but it was nevertheless a unit that was held together by a common tradition and a common stock of learning. Although the law of the Corpus Juris Civilis (especially its main part, the Digest—the writings of the jurists) was, as such, in effect nowhere, it constituted the basis of study, training, and discourse everywhere. In spite of all local variety, the civil-law world experienced a sense of unity that corresponded to the strongly felt unity of European civilization.

This unity was undermined by the religious divisions of the Reformation and Counter-Reformationand by the rise of nationalism that accompanied the unification and stabilization of the European nations and their struggle for hegemony. In the field of law the split found expression in the national codifications, through which the law was unified within each nation but was simultaneously set apart from that of all others. In Denmark codification occurred in 1683, in Norway in 1687, in Sweden-Finland in 1734, and in Prussia in 1794. Because of the personality of their promoter and the novel technique applied, great fame and influence were achieved by the Napoleonic codifications of the private and criminal law of France, especially their central piece, the civil code of 1804 that came to be known as the Napoleonic Code.

Codification continued after the Napoleonic era. In Belgium and Luxembourg, which had been incorporated into France under Napoleon, his codes were simply left in effect. The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and numerous countries of Latin America followed the French model not only by undertaking national codification but also by using the same techniques and arrangements. Naturally, their courts and legal scholars were, at least in the early 19th century, inclined to pay great attention to French legal learning.

In Germany national codification came considerably later than in France. Only a commercial code had been uniformly created by the independent German states shortly after the revolution of 1848. The unification of the criminal law took place almost simultaneously with the political unification of the country, which occurred in 1871. Codification of the organization of the courts and of civil and criminal procedure came in 1879. But the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch für das deutsche Reich) was not completed until 1896, and it did not take effect until Jan. 1, 1900.

Throughout the 19th century the vigorous German science of law exercised much influence in Austria (which as early as 1811 had codified its law in a technique different from that of France), in Switzerland, in the Nordic countries, and, later, in most of eastern Europe. When Swiss law was codified in 1907–12, it became the model for the Turkish codification of 1926 and strongly influenced the codification of China, which is still in effect in Taiwan.

Owing to the different dates of codification and the different style and attitude of legal learning, the civil-law family of laws is thus divided into the French, or Romanist, branch and the German, or Germanic, branch. Their main features are determined by those of their prototypes. The legal system of Japan essentially belongs to the German branch, but it presents important features of its own.

The French System

In France the Revolutionary period was one of extensive legislative activity, and long-desired changes were enthusiastically introduced. A new conception of law appeared in France: statute was deemed the basic source of law. Customs remained only if they could not be replaced by statutes. The Parlements, the major courts of the nation, were dismantled and replaced by a unified system of courts that were merely supposed to apply the law and never to lay down general rules.

The main ideas embodied in the revolutionary legislation were to be found in the motto of the French Revolution, “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” (which is still the motto of France). The passionate desire for liberty and equality aroused by the 18th-century philosophes inspired the changes that took place.

The system that had come to be called feudal, although it had little to do with the feudalism of the High Middle Ages, was hated by the peasants and the bourgeoisie for its unbalanced distribution of privileges—especially those exempting the nobles and clergy from taxation. These privileges were abolished early in the Revolution. The revolutionaries detested organized groups of any kind, for it was thought that only one authority should exist over the citizens—that of the state. As a result, the guilds, which demanded compulsory membership and regulated every profession, were suppressed, and freedom of commerce was established. The old-style universities were dissolved; in the same spirit, the property of the Roman Catholic Church was secularized, and the priests and bishops were made state employees, a situation that most of them did not accept.

Family relations were deeply transformed according to the principles of liberty and equality. Marriage was organized merely as a civil act; divorce was permitted; paternal authority was limited; and parents’ consent was not required for marriages of children over 21 years of age. A short experiment was made with “family courts” that were permitted to overrule paternal decisions, and the wife was declared equal to her husband. In matters of succession, equal parts were given to all children, and the testator’s right to dispose of property by will was limited in order to prevent the reestablishment of inequalities by this device.

Throughout the Revolutionary period, successive governments were committed to consolidating the legal changes in a set of codes. Drafts were made, but time and authority were lacking, and none were enacted until civil society was restabilized under Napoleon.

The concept of codification

From a practical point of view, the Civil Code achieved the unification of French civil law. This was not, however, the only concern of its drafters. They shared with most of their contemporaries and with most modern French lawyers the belief that the law should be written in clear language so that it would be accessible to every citizen. This view implied that the new code had to be complete in its field, setting forth general rules and arranging them logically. Finally, it was not to unnecessarily break with tradition.

The Civil Code was organized as a series of short articles because it was assumed, first, that legislators could not foresee all circumstances that might arise in life and, second, that only conciseness could make the code flexible enough to adapt old principles to new circumstances. The general rules contained in the code have since been applied to concrete circumstances without much difficulty. When an interpretation has been required, the courts have had the responsibility to give it, taking into consideration the “spirit” of the code in an effort to apply to each case the solution that would have been desired by the legislator.

The drafters of the code strove toward inner consistency in their work so that reliance on logic might ensure satisfactory application of it. They saw no contradiction between logic and experience. Since the 17th-century beginnings of the Age of Reason, abstract reasoning had characterized the French approach to law and to life in general. For this reason, articles of the code were not regarded as narrow rulings. If no one article was found to apply exactly to a given situation, it was proper to consider several articles and to draw from them a more general rule that could either be applied to the case itself or be combined with others to reach a solution.

Although the code was a work of logic, it relied mainly on experience. Its drafters were exceptionally well qualified in this respect: they had lived the first half of their lives under the laws of ancient France and had also known the Revolution. Their purpose was not so much to create new laws as to restate existing laws, subject to choice when revolutionary enactments varied from previous ones and when previous laws differed from one another. They were ready to adopt any rules that seemed best suited to the French people on the basis of experience; they recognized that laws could not be inflexible “but must be adapted to the character, the habits, and the situation of the people for whom they are drafted.”

Later changes and adaptations

No important changes were made in the Civil Code from 1804 to 1880, except the repeal of divorce in 1816, when a Catholic monarchy was restored. The political and legislative power was held by the bourgeoisie, and they were entirely satisfied with the basic principles of the code, which favoured individualism and free will. In fact, from 1804 until the enactment of the constitution of the Third Republic in 1875, the Civil Code remained the law of France despite several changes in political regimes. Jurisprudence was centred upon it; in both teaching and writing, scholars discussed it article by article. The courts fulfilled the role that the drafters had stressed for them; imbued with the spirit of the code, they applied its general rules to particular cases.

The social atmosphere changed during the Third Republic, when universal suffrage gave the labouring class an influence on legislation. Faith in liberalism was shaken, and the idea grew that the state should intervene to protect the weak. Statutes increased in number. This movement was accentuated by the world wars of the 20th century, during which a mass of emergency regulations had to be passed, and the power of the state to encroach on private interests for the sake of the community was increased.

Subsequent amendments to the code revealed two trends: first, greater individualism in family law; second, qualification of individual rights for the sake of social interests—what has been called “socialization” of the law. Adaptation of the law to new social needs was not made by statute alone; the courts, to a certain extent, adjusted the law to modern circumstances. They did this, however, while maintaining a consciousness of their subordinate position. They recognized that, as a general rule, basic changes were the province of the legislature and not of the judge, though this did not prevent them from gradually adapting the law to the modern conditions of life.

Legal learning also had a role. A number of important statutes were drafted by commissions that included judges, professors, and lawyers; and authors often suggested to the courts new developments in the application of rules of law. Although most of the statutes passed during the 19th and 20th centuries were left outside the code, they continued to be published with the new editions of the code.

By the middle of the 20th century, it had become apparent that the code should be revised. This task was entrusted to a commission, which produced several important drafts. The effort to replace the old code with a completely new one was halted when Charles de Gaulle came to power in 1958. Revision has since occurred only on a sporadic, piecemeal basis, except for the sections concerning family law, which have been thoroughly reformulated.

The main categories of French private law

The French Civil Code uses many of the categories that were developed in ancient Rome, but its law is that of its own time.

Marriage and family

The drafters of the French Civil Code regarded marriage as the basic institution of a civilized society. Taking into account the variety of religious attitudes in France, they decided that only marriage ceremonies celebrated before secular officials should be legally valid. This did not deprive clergy of the various faiths of the right to celebrate religious marriage ceremonies, but these were devoid of any legal effect and had to take place after the secular ceremony in order to avoid any risk of confusion. Parental control over children’s marriages was partially restored; consent was required for sons under 25 and daughters under 21. After 1900 the formalities of marriage were lessened and parental control over it curtailed. Twentieth-century statutes gradually reestablished the revolutionary rule that the consent of the parents was not necessary when the parties were over 21. In 1974 the age of majority for this and other purposes was reduced to 18.

In France under the ancien régime, the family had been centred upon the husband, whose strong authority and powers were inherited from the Roman paterfamilias (head of family) tradition. Although the Revolution proclaimed women to be equal in rights with men, it did little to implementthis view in law. The drafters of the code saw no reason to modify the traditional situation, and Napoleon himself favoured subordination of the wife to the husband. The code expressly stated that she owed him obedience. With very few exceptions, she had no legal capacity to act. Without the written consent of her husband, she could not sell, give, mortgage, buy, or even receive property through donation or succession. Statutes in the 20th century, however, severely diminished the authority of the husband over his wife and endowed her with full legal capacity. In 1970 the old language stating that “the husband is the head of the family” was abandoned in favour of a new principle of joint family decision-making power, which did not, however, extend to the management of community property.

Matrimonial-property regimes have since been revised in numerous countries, the tendency being toward a partnership in property acquired after the marriage, with each party retaining control over the property he or she had before the marriage. Although the Napoleonic Code provided for a statutory regime (if no particular marriage contract had been made), under which all chattels and earnings of the spouses would be community property to be shared equally between them or their heirs at the dissolution of the marriage, the husband was vested with all active powers, even over his wife’s property. In 1965 movables owned by either spouse before marriage were excluded from the community fund, which now, in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, consists only of the fruits of the spouses’ work or frugality during marriage. With the acquisition of legal capacity in the early part of the century, a French wife was free to manage and dispose of her own earnings and property, but it was not until 1985 that the long predominance of the husband in the management of the couple’s common property was replaced by a system of equal comanagement.

Divorce

Divorce was first introduced into France after the Revolution. It was made very easy and was even allowed by mutual agreement.

The drafters of the code decided that since many persons were not prevented by religious convictionfrom seeking divorce, it was not for the legislator to prevent unhappy spouses from terminating their marriages and from entering new legal unions. Divorce, therefore, was allowed, but only within strict limits, so that “the most sacred of contracts should not become the toy of caprice.” The only grounds for divorce were adultery, sentences for the most serious crimes, excesses such as gambling habits and expenditures, cruel treatment, or serious insult. Mutual agreement was added under the personal pressure of Napoleon, already intent on divorcing his first wife, by whom he had no child. But the procedure of divorce by mutual agreement was extremely long, complicated, and costly, and no second marriage could take place within six years thereafter.

Divorce was repealed in 1816 after Napoleon’s fall and the restoration of the monarchy, and it was not reintroduced until 1884. From 1884 to 1975, divorce was permitted only on the grounds of adultery, conviction of a serious crime, and cruelty. Divorce by mutual agreement was not reinstated until 1975, when a comprehensive reform of the divorce law permitted a marriage to be terminated by consent or by petition of one spouse unopposed by the other, or when the marriage had broken down after six years of separation or after six years of mental illness of one spouse, in addition to the traditional grounds of fault.

Succession and gifts

The Napoleonic Code adopted many of the ideas of the Revolution concerning succession. But its formulators tempered them with exceptions and combined them with ideas from the ancien régime.

The revolutionary law on intestate succession (succession without a valid will) relied upon two basic principles: (1) that no distinctions be made within the estate of the deceased, land and chattels being treated in the same way and no account being taken of the origin of landed property; and (2) that equal parts be given to all heirs of the same degree of kindred, the advantages accruing through some customs to the firstborn or to male children being abolished. Using these two principles, the code provided that an estate should devolve first of all upon the children and other descendants. If heirs of one degree died before others of the same degree and left children, representation (the principle that the children of a deceased heir inherit his share) applied. In other cases distribution was made per capita, with equal shares going to those heirs of equal degree. Illegitimate children could inherit from their parents, but they received less than legitimate children and could not cut out either the deceased’s own parents or his brothers and sisters. Through reforms in the 1970s, the rights of illegitimate children to succeed to their parents have largely been assimilated to those of legitimate offspring.

According to the code, the spouse could succeed only if there were no persons who were related to the deceased up to a degree specified by law. A surviving wife was thus in a poor position if no gift or legacy had been made to her, though under the statutory matrimonial regime she received half of the community property into which all chattels of both spouses fell. The rights of the surviving spouse were increased at various times during the 20th century. In general, surviving spouses are entitled to at least the usufruct (similar to a life interest) of one-quarter of the property left by the deceased. The survivor inherits half of the estate if there are no children and if there are surviving ascendants on only one side of the deceased’s family. If the decedent leaves no blood relatives within a certain degree of kindred, the surviving spouse receives the entire estate.

Wills may be formal or informal. Unwitnessed wills are valid, provided that they are handwritten throughout, and dated and signed, by the testator’s own hand. Wills are effective upon the death of the testator and do not need to be probated. Freedom to dispose of property by will or by gift is limited in order to protect children and other descendants as well as parents and grandparents, who have to be allowed a certain proportion.

Property

The intricate system of obligations and rights inherited by the ancien régime from feudalism was rejected by the Revolution, which restored a system patterned on that of Roman law.

The only classification of goods is the basic one of immovables (which are defined as having a fixed place in space) and movables (which include all goods that are not immovables). In contrast to the “feudalist” complexities in common law, the normal relationship between persons and things is ownership, which is defined as a complete, absolute, free, and simple right. But, as in the law of other modern nations, the use of property is subject to many kinds of restrictions imposed in the public interest. Usufructs, or servitudes, are possible, but rights in an estate never require the person in whom they are vested to do anything. The code states that a servitude “is a charge laid on an estate for the use and utility of another estate belonging to another owner,” and it emphasizes that “servitudes do not establish any preeminence of one estate over another.” Title in land may be acquired within 10 or 20 years if the possessor believed, in good faith, that he was the real owner. Furthermore, the bona fide purchaser of movable property immediately becomes its owner, and nobody can prove a better title against him unless the property has been lost or stolen.

The section on mortgages in the Civil Code was weak. An excellent statute of the revolutionary period was developed in 1798 to set up a system of registration for all transfers of land titles and real-estate mortgages. It enabled a buyer of land to ascertain whether he was buying from a regular owner and whether the land was mortgaged; if it was, the buyer could clear his title by offering the price to the mortgagee.

The drafters of the code maintained this system of compulsory registration, but only for gifts and for contractual mortgages. Sales of real estate and a number of legal mortgages were not subject to registration. This gap left prospective creditors or buyers with insufficient information. It was only after reforms were made in 1855, 1935, 1955, and 1967 that there was a comprehensive, though still not fully reliable, system of publicity for mortgages and conveyances of immovable property.

Contracts and torts

The French Revolution brought no changes into the law in this relatively nonpolitical field. The drafters of the code merely restated the law that had developed during the course of centuries and that authors already had analyzed.

The basic principles of contract law are informality and freedom; the latter is limited, however, when demanded by public policy. The code states that “agreements legally entered into have the effect of laws on those who make them.” The entire matter of torts is dealt with in only five short articles. The general basis for liability is the following: “Any act of a person that causes injury to another obligates the person through whose fault the injury occurred to give redress.” The subsequent articles in the code regulate liability for damages caused by things, animals, children, and employees. It was left to the courts to work out a complete system of tort law based on these few articles.