The civil law is the set of legal provisions and ordinances whose purpose is to regulate the common life of people, in relation to their property, needs, rights and relationships with each other and with the State.
The origin of civil law goes back to the legislature of the Roman State, when it was understood in two different and opposed ways: private law, which regulated relations between individuals, and public law, which had to do exclusively with the tasks of the people and the institutions of the State, or of the public powers among themselves.
Characteristics Of Civil Law
1. Regarding people
One of the main aspects of civil law is related to the very existence of the human being: birth, death and legal ties between individuals, such as nationality, civil status and legal considerations that accompany the person from birth.
2. Regarding the goods
The legal disposition of things and goods, as well as of the ways of acquiring and enjoying them, also concerns civil law. This can refer to:
The different types of property.
The regulations concerning the use of a specific good.
The rules of succession or inheritance.
The transfers and assignments of specific goods.
3. Regarding the family
Since the family is the basis of society, civil law involves the relationships derived from it, whether in moral, ethical, patrimonial or simply in the interest of public order. This refers to marital unions (or civil unions), relationships of kinship and consanguinity, as well as rights, duties and relationships of superiority or dependence that they generate.
4. Regarding civil liability
Civil liability is understood as the obligation of the persons to repair or compensate the eventual damage they may cause to others and their property, as well as to the property of the State. This responsibility may be of a contractual nature (when a voluntary agreement is violated) or extracontractual (when what is violated is a law).
5. Regarding contracts
Another aspect on which civil law falls is the regulation of legal acts and businesses, as well as their possible consequences and links. In this sense, it is responsible for ensuring compliance with the obligations and benefits contracted, but also for the conditions under which such agreements may take place.
6. Regarding international law
There is also a so-called international civil law, whose field of action are the areas of conflict between legal regulations between countries, conflicts of applicable law and immigration regulations. This is also known as private international law and each country determines its own position in the matter.
7. Regarding the common law
A broader aspect of civil law is to serve as a general disposition of the modes of execution of other branches of law (such as commercial or labor law), with regard to the application and interpretation of established legal norms. That is why common law and civil law are practically synonymous.
8. Regarding the legal system
The civil law also seeks to study the different legal mechanisms available for the protection of the legal provisions described above, always within the framework of what is contemplated by the current legal system, such as the national Constitution.
9. Regarding the territory
In the same country there may be several modulations of civil law, applicable to different cases. Thus, there may be a national or federal level, applicable throughout the territory, and other provincial or provincial, restricted to a specific state or region within it.
10. Regarding the civil code
The civil law regulations are organized and systematized in a code, whose nature is public and notorious for the citizens of a territory. The first in history was promulgated by Napoleon in France in 1804, for what is known as the Code of Napoleon.
