Civil Law

Remember the following words and word combinations.

civil law	цивільне право
civil wrong	цивільне правопорушення
breach	порушення
common law	загальне право
legal codes	правові кодекси
tort	делікт
lawsuit	судова справа
strict liability	сувора відповідальність
strong legal institutions	сильні правові установи
commission	повноваження
comprehensive code	всеохоплюючий кодекс
authority	влада
mixed legal system	змішані праові системи
to settle a dispute	улагоджувати спори
attorney general	ам. Міністр юстиції англ. Генеральний прокурор
prosecutor	обвинувач, позивач; прокурор
agent	довірена особа
objectivе	ціль, предмет
wrong	правопорушення
revenge	помста

Text a. Civil law

Civil Law is the body of private law used in those countries in which the legal system is based on ancient Roman law modified by medieval and modern influences. Civil law is used in most nations in Europe and Latin America, as well as in some countries in Asia and Africa. The law of Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and a number of other nations is besed on English commonlaw, which differs from civil law in origin and other important respects.

The term civil law is also employed to distinguish those legal codes that deal with civil relationships (such as citizenship, marriage, divorce, and certain contractual arrangements) from other codes such as those dealing with criminal law.

The civil law originated in ancient Rome. One of the principal characteristics of Roman civilization was the development of strong legal institutions. In the 6^th century, a commission appointed by the Emperor Justinian collected and consolidated all the sources of law, including the opinions of the great legal scholars during previous centuries. Theresult was the Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law), also called the Justinian Code, a comprehensive code with the accumulated wisdom and experience of many generations of Roman jurists.

The principle of civil law is to provide all citizens with an accessible and written collection of the laws which apply to them and which judges must follow. It is the most prevalent and oldest surviving legal system in the world. Colonial expansion spread the civil law system and European civil law has been adopted in much of Latin America as well as in parts of Asia and Africa.

The primary source of law is the legal code, which is a compendium of statutes, arranged by subject matter in some pre-specified order; a code may also be described as "a systematic collection of interrelated articles written in a terse, staccato style." Law codes are usually created by a legislature's enactment of a new statute that embodies all the old statutes relating to the subject and including changes necessitated by court decisions. In some cases, the change results in a new statutory concept. The two other major legal systems in the world are common law and Islamic law.

Civil law systems may be subdivided into further categories:

− Countries where Roman law in some form is still living law and there has been no attempt to create a civil code: Andorra and San Marino

− Countries with mixed systems in which Roman law is an academic source of authority but common law is also influential: Scotland and the Roman-Dutch law countries (South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Guyana)

− Countries with codes intended to be comprehensive, such as France: it is this last category that is normally regarded as typical of "civil law" systems.

The Scandinavian systems are of an intermediate character, as they have a background of Roman and customary law together with partial codification. The laws of Louisiana and Quebec may also be considered as hybrid systems, in that a French-type civil code coexists with pre-revolutionary French customary law and considerable common law influence.

A prominent example of civil law would be the Napoleonic Code (1804), named after French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The Code comprises three components: the law of persons, property law, and commercial law. Rather than a catalog of judicial decisions, the Code consists of abstractly written principles as rules of law.

Civil law is sometimes referred to as neo-Roman law, Romano-Germanic law or Continental law. The expression civil law is a translation of Latin jus civile, or "citizens' law", which was the Late Imperial term for its legal system, as opposed to the laws governing conquered peoples (jus gentium).

TASK 1. Answer the following questions.

1. What the difference between the civil law and criminal law?

2. Can you give any example of civil law case?

3. What branches of the civil law do you know?

4. What are the main principles of civil law?

5. What are the objectives of Civil Law?

TASK 2. Translate the following words and word combinations into English.

Кримінальна шкода суспільству, грошова компенсація за збитки, покарання, жертва, порушення без спричинення шкоди, правопорушення, деліктне право, цивільне правопорушення, тілесне ушкодження, майнова шкода, моральні страждання, недбалість.

TASK 3. Translate the following sentences into English.

1. Цивільний кодекс України регулює майнові і пов’язані з ними особисті немайнові відносини.

2. Злочин – це правопорушення проти суспільства.

3. Делікт – це порушення закону, наслідком якого є тілесне ушкодження, майнова шкода або обмеження прав особи.

4. В українському цивільному праві важливе місце займає вина без вини (Коли особа повинна була передбачити можливість порушення закону. Це стосується, наприклад, власників легкових автомобілів (car-owners)).

5. Спроба влагодити суперечку є об’єктом цивільного права.

6. Прийняття нового Цивільного кодексу України, який вступив у законну силу з 1 січня 2004 року, є важливим етапом на шляху України до європейської інтеграції.

7. Відповідальність без провини є основним положенням у цивільному праві України.

TASK 4. Agree or disagree with the following statements.

1. Invasion of privacy is not a subject of tort law but more often a criminal offence.

2. Civil Law refers to the area of Laws, which through incorporation, take on the legal status of individuals.

3. The main subdivisions of the Civil Law are: the law of property, family law, the law of contract, the law of torts.

4. A tort is a public wrong.

5. In civil law there is the attempt to settle a dispute.

6. An action by an individual against the attorney general is a public law.

7. Civil law regulates private relations among individuals.

TASK 5. Have you ever had any legal problems? What are the ways to solve these problems?

• Your neighbours’ bathroom leaked into your ceiling, and they do not want to pay damages.

• You were delayed by a metro accident and missed an important business appointment.

• A couple you know intends to divorce but they cannot decide who their favourite pressure-cooker should belong to.

• You rent an apartment and pay for 3 months in advance. At the end of the second month your landlady demands extra fee...

TASK 6. Just for Fun.