Most of the world runs its legal systems on civil codes — comprehensive, systematically organized statutes that set out the law from first principles. France has its civil code. Germany has its Burgerliches Gesetzbuch. Spain, Italy, Japan, and most of Latin America follow variations of the same model. The United States does not. With the exception of Louisiana, the U.S. operates under a common law system, a tradition it inherited from England and has developed over two and a half centuries of judicial decisions.
The roots lie in colonial history. England had developed its common law tradition over centuries before the American colonies were established, and the colonists brought English legal culture with them. Common law is judge-made law: courts decide cases, and those decisions become precedent that binds future courts facing similar facts. It builds from the bottom up, case by case, rather than from a comprehensive code written from the top down. When the colonies declared independence and the states formed their governments, they largely retained the legal infrastructure they already had. English common law continued as the default unless a legislature specifically replaced it by statute.
Civil law countries took a different path. After the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned a comprehensive code to sweep away the inconsistencies of feudal law and replace them with a rational, accessible set of rules. The Napoleonic Code, adopted in 1804, became the model for continental Europe, Quebec, and former French territories worldwide. Because Louisiana was under French control before the Louisiana Purchase, it adopted that civil law tradition and has maintained it ever since, making it the one American outlier. The practical consequence in litigation is significant: in a common law system, courts look first to precedent; in a civil code system, courts look first to the written code. Statutes matter in both, but the analytical starting point is different.
The attorneys at Lord & Lindley, PLLC focus on fiduciary litigation, trust and estate disputes, and complex business disputes in North Carolina. If you have questions about a dispute involving a trustee, executor, partner, or corporate officer, call us at (704) 457-1010 or visitwww.lordlindley.com to schedule a consultation.