Civil Law: The Tradition and the Subject

The phrase "civil law" sends researchers in two directions at once. A student asked to compare civil law with common law wants legal traditions. Someone told that their dispute is a civil matter wants the non-criminal side of their own legal system, which may well be a common law one. Searching before settling which meaning applies produces a pile of results about the wrong thing.

Two meanings

As Cornell's Legal Information Institute summarises it, the term names either a branch of law governing private rights and obligations, or a legal system derived from Roman law and based on codified statutes^S01. As a branch, civil law covers non-criminal relationships between persons, including contracts, torts, family law, property and trusts, and it is distinguished from criminal law and from administrative law^S01. As a system, it is a framework resting primarily on written codes and statutes, contrasted with common law, which rests on judicial decisions or precedent^S01.

That summary is an introduction and should be read as one. It does not mean that judges in code systems never shape the law, or that common law jurisdictions have no codes: the United States guide describes a federal code of statutes, and the Texas guide a state one.

What to look for in a code

Code research turns on three questions that are easy to skip. Which version: a code is amended over time, and the text in force on the date that matters may not be the one on today's screen. Which language: an English text of a foreign code can stand in several different relationships to the law, which When a translation is not the law sets out. And how courts have applied it: a provision's words begin the research, and the decisions applying them are where its working meaning is found.

A citation records much of this in compressed form. How to read a civil code citation takes three citations apart element by element.

A German illustration: BGB section 823

Section 823 of the German Civil Code, the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch or BGB, shows how much one provision can hold and how little it settles alone. In paraphrase of the German text: under subsection 1, a person who intentionally or negligently and unlawfully injures another's life, body, health, freedom, property or other right must compensate the damage that results; under subsection 2, the same obligation falls on a person who breaches a statute intended to protect another, and where that statute can be breached without fault, liability arises only if there is fault^S19.

Two cautions follow. The English translation on the same federal portal places the section in a title headed "Torts" and states that it includes amendments made by an Act of 10 August 2021^S16. It was not checked against later changes, so quote the German text^S19 and use the translation to read it. And section 823 is a starting provision, not German tort law: defences, causation, the measure of damages and the decisions applying the section all lie elsewhere. For how German law is published generally, see the Germany country guide and its sources and notes.

France: where to look, not what it says

French law is the natural second illustration, but the Légifrance pages requested for this update could not be retrieved, so this guide makes no statement about the content of any French Civil Code article. The France country guide sets out where French law is published and which version governs, and its sources and notes list the documents behind it.

Research steps, in order

1. Decide which meaning you have. The tradition, or the non-criminal subject matter. If it is the second, research your own system's law and leave the comparison aside^S01.
2. Identify the code and the provision. Record the code's name in its own language, its abbreviation, and the section or article number.
3. Fix the version. Note the date that matters and find the text in force on that date, not only today's text.
4. Read the governing language. Quote the original; use a translation to understand it, and record the translation's own stated version^S16S19.
5. Find judicial application. Look for decisions and commentary applying the provision before concluding what it means in practice.
6. Compare only once each side is settled. Take the question to comparative tort research when both systems' sources are pinned down.

Common traps

• Reading "civil" in a court notice as a reference to European codes, when it means the non-criminal side of the reader's own system^S01.
• Quoting an English translation as the law. The German portal's translation states its own amendment cut-off^S16.
• Treating one code provision as the whole answer. Section 823 begins a German tort question; it does not resolve one^S19.
• Assuming that judges in code systems never shape the law, or that common law systems have no codes.

Related reading on this site

• Comparing tort law across systemsA worksheet for asking the same questions of two systems.
• Researching the law of GermanyWhere German law is published, and which text governs.
• Researching the law of FranceWhere French law is published, and which version of a text governs.
• Comparative law toolsCollections for setting one system beside another.

This guide explains research terms and sources. The section 823 paraphrase is a reading aid, not a translation to rely on, and nothing here is legal advice.

Sources checked 2026-10-03. 3 sources cited on this page.