Question

Why does the code mention both civil law and law of nations

Answer 1

The code mentioned both civil law and the Law of Nations as they illustrate the development of legal systems beginning from Roman times, embodying civil disputes and international relations, respectively. Enlightenment thinkers and Napoleon contributed to the evolution of law, all shaping today's legal principles, such as the protection of human rights, the Rule of Law, and the application of natural law.

Step-by-step explanation:

The mention of civil law and the Law of Nations in historical texts often highlights the evolution of legal systems that influence modern societies. During the Roman era, civil law primarily handled disputes between individuals, such as property suits or business conflicts, while public law dealt with offenses against the state. As Roman influence expanded beyond Italy, the Law of Nations emerged as an early form of international law. This body of law was based upon what was considered universal standards of justice and provided a framework for governing a diverse empire.

In the 18th century, the belief that law and reason were inherent parts of nature took hold. Legislators began to see the function of government as protecting and improving the lives of its citizens. This idea was reflected in the works of Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and later, in the Napoleonic Code. Napoleon's reforms sought to implement fair and uniform laws that upheld basic rights and separated church and state.

From the Code of Hammurabi to the philosophies of Montesquieu, law has evolved to embody principles of fairness, justice, and the collective will of a society, sometimes referred to as the Rule of Law. Classical thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas recognized various types of laws—but maintained that human laws should align with natural laws, valuing the objective nature of justice. Eventually, Roman law, as codified by Justinian in the Corpus Juris Civilis, became the precursor to the bulk of European legal systems that are in use today.

Answer 2

Civil law, civilian law, or Roman law is a legal system originating in Europe, intellectualized within the framework of late Roman law, and whose most prevalent feature is that its core principles are codifiedinto a referable system which serves as the primary source of law. This can be contrasted with common law systems whose intellectual framework comes from judge-made decisional law which gives precedential authority to prior court decisions on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions (doctrine of judicial precedent, or stare decisis).[1][2]

Historically, a civil law is the group of legal ideas and systems ultimately derived from the Codex Justinianus, but heavily overlaid by Napoleonic, Germanic, canonical, feudal, and local practices,[3] as well as doctrinal strains such as natural law, codification, and legal positivism.

Conceptually, civil law proceeds from abstractions, formulates general principles, and distinguishes substantive rules from procedural rules.[4] It holds case law to be secondary and subordinate to statutory law. When discussing civil law, one should keep in mind the conceptual difference between a statute and a codal article. The marked feature of civilian systems is that they use codes with brief text that tend to avoid factually specific scenarios.[5] Code articles deal in generalities and thus stand at odds with statutory schemes which are often very long and very detailed.