Introductioncivil law, as used in this article, a modern legal
system based upon Roman law, as distinguished from common law.
Civil law is based on written legal codes, a hallmark of the
Roman legal system, in which disputes were settled by reference
to a written legal code arrived at through legislation, edicts,
and the like; common law is based on the precedents created by
judicial decisions over time. The tendency in civil law is to
create a unified legal system by working out with maximum
precision the conclusions to be drawn from basic principles. The
civil law judge is bound by the provisions of the written law.
The traditional civil law decision states the applicable
provision from the code or from a relevant statute, and the
judgment is based upon that provision. With a few exceptions,
the countries on the continent of Europe, the countries that
were former colonies of such continental powers (e.g., the Latin
American countries), and other countries that have recently
adopted Western legal systems (e.