Sources of law in civil law countries

Sources of law in civil law countries
 Where one has to look to determine what legal rules
are applicable to govern the relationship;
 (i)primary sources (binding), such as enacted law and
custom for a number of countries, sometimes, also
general principles of law and
 (ii)secondary sources (not binding, may have weight
when primary sources areabsent, unclear or
incomplete), such as case law and the writings of the legal
scholars;
 Enacted law is the main source of law , includes
legal rules adopted by the parliament, as well as
issued by executive and administrative agencies;
 Court decisions are not binding in a subsequent
cases.
Sources of law have different legal force, they
form so-called 'hierarchy' of legal acts:
◦ constitution has greater legal force,
◦ it is followed by legislation (laws produced by the
parliament )
◦ executive decrees (acts of the government ),
administrative regulations, etc.

 In federal states – special rules concerning
correlation between federal and state law;
 Besides, international law rules have special effect
on national law of the country.


Legislation – acts of principal legislative body,
judicial interpretation will follow;
 Custom plays important role in many legal
system (e.g. in England): initial establishment of
custom requires proof that it existed
uninterrupted for a long period of time and
that it existed by common consent (not by
the use of force)
 Conventions (influential source of English law) –
unwritten source of law (together with
custom) .