 LEGAL SYSTEM COMMON LAW AND CIVIL LAW 法律体系：普通法系和大陆法系 Every independent country has its own legal system. The systems vary according to each country’s social traditions and form of government. But most systems can be classed as either (1) a common-law system or (2) a civil-law system. The United States, Canada, Great Britain, and other English-speaking countries have a common-law system. Most other countries have a civil law system. Many countries combine features of both system. A general distinction can be made between civil law jurisdictions, which codify their laws, and common law system, where judge made law is not consolidated. 每一个独立的国家都有其法律体系。这些法律体系因每一个国家的社会传统和国家结构不同而不同。但是大多数体系都可以被划分为普通法系和大陆法系。美国、加拿大、英国和其他英语国家属于普通法系国家。大多数其他国家属于大陆法系。许多国家兼具两种法系的特点。大陆法管辖区域和普通法系最主要的区别在于，前者将法律法典化，后者的法官造法不将其汇编整合。 1 Common-law system 普通法系 The common-law system prevails in England, the United States and other countries colonized by England. It is distinct from civil-law system, which predominates in Europe and in areas colonized by France and Spain. The common-law system is used in all the states of the United States except Louisiana, where France Civil Law combined with English Criminal Law to form a hybrid system. The common law system is also used in Canada, except in the Province of Quebec, where the France civil-law prevails. 英国、美国以及其他曾经属于英国殖民地的国家是主要的普通法国家。普通法系区别与大陆法系，后者在欧洲以及曾经属于法国和西班牙殖民地的地区占统治地位。美国（路易斯安那州除外，路易斯安那州将法国民法与英国刑法相结合构成混合法系）均采用普通法系。加拿大（魁北克除外，魁北克采用法国式大陆法）也采用普通法系。 Anglo-American common law evolved chiefly from three English Crown courts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: the Exchequer, the King’s Bench, and the common pleas. These courts eventually assumed jurisdictions over disputes previously decided by local or manorial courts, such as baronial courts, admiral’s (maritime) courts, guild, and forest courts, whose jurisdiction was limited to specific geographic or subject matter areas. Equity courts, which were instituted to provide relief to litigant in cases where common-law relief was unavailable, also merged with common-law courts. This consolidation of jurisdiction over most legal disputes into several courts was the framework for the modern Anglo-American judicial system. 盎格鲁-美利坚普通法主要由三个12和13世纪的英国王室法院演化而来：财政诉讼法院、王座法院和普通民事诉讼法院。这些法院最终取得了之前由诸如男爵法院、海事法院、行会、王室猎场法院等地方法院或者领地法院（其管辖权仅限于特定地域或事项）管辖的法律纠纷的司法管辖权。衡平法院设立的初衷是为了在诉讼当事人无法获得普通法救济时提供司法救济，后与普通法院合并。这种针对大多数法律纠纷的司法管辖权的合并到数个法院是现代盎格鲁-美利坚司法体系的基本框架。 Common-law courts base their decision on prior judicial pronouncement rather than on legislative enactments. Common-law judges rely on their predecessor’s decisions of actual controversies, rather than on abstract codes or texts, to guide them in applying the law. Common-law judges find the grounds for their decisions in law reports, which contain decisions of past controversies. Under the doctrine of stare decisis, common-law judges are obliged to adhere to previously decided cases, or precedents, where the facts are substantially the same. A court’s decision is binding authority for similar cases decided by the same court or by lower courts within the same jurisdiction. The decision is not binding on courts of higher rank within that jurisdiction, but it may be considered as persuasive authority. 普通法院是在先前的司法判决，而非立法机构的立法的基础之上做出裁决的。普通法的法官依靠先前针对事实争议的裁判，而非抽象的法典或文本来引导他们适用法律。普通法的法官从包括历史争议的裁决在内的判例汇编中寻找裁判依据。根据“遵循先例”原则，普通法的法官在事实实质相同时必须坚持先前的裁判案例，即先例。法院裁决对于由同一法院或者同一司法管辖权范围内的下级法院裁判的相同案例形成“有拘束力的先例”。该裁决对同一司法管辖权范围内的更高级别的法院无拘束力，但是其可能被视为“有说服力的先例”。 Under a common-law system, disputes are settled through an adversarial exchange of arguments and evidence. Both parties present their cases before a natural fact finder either a judge or a jury. They judge or jury evaluates the evidence, applies the appropriate law to the facts, and renders a judgement in favor of one of the parties. Following the decision,either party may appeal the decision to a higher court. Appellate courts in a common-law system may review only findings of law, not determinations of fact. 在普通法系中，纠纷的解决是通过对抗式的辩论和证据的交锋来实现的。双方当事人要在中立的事实调查人（法官或陪审团）面前展示案件焦点。法官或陪审团对证据做出评估，针对事实适用恰当的法律，并作出有利于一方当事人的判决。任何一方当事人都可以针对该判决向更高一级法院上诉。普通法系的上诉法院仅审查对法律问题的裁决，而不审查对事实的决定。 The lawmaking role of legislatures in common law countries has increased greatly during the 1900’s. For example, the United States Congress has made major changes in American contract and property law. The changes have dealt, for example, with such matters as labor management, workers’ wages and hours, health, safety, and environmental protection. Nevertheless, common-law countries have kept the basic features of the English legal system, which is the power of judges to make laws. In addition, constitutional law in these countries continues the common-law tradition of defending the people’s right and liberties. 20世纪期间，普通法国家中立法机构立法的作用在不断加强。例如，美国国会对美国合同和财产法作出了主要修订。这些修订处理了劳动力管理、工人薪资、工作时间、健康、安全以及环保等问题。然而普通法国家一直保留着英国法律体系的基本特征，即法官造法的权力。此外，普通法国家的宪法延续了普通法保护人民权利和自由的传统。 2 Civil-law System 大陆法系 Civil-law system are based mainly on statures. The majority of civil-law countries have assembled their statures into one or more carefully organized collections called the codes. 大陆法系主要以制定法为基础。大多数大陆法国家将制定法编纂为一部法律或者精心编纂为法典。 Most modern law codes can be traced back to the famous code that was commissioned by the Roman Emperor Justinian I in the A.D. 500’s. Justinian’s code updated and summarized the whole of Roman law, which was called the Corps Juris Civilis, meaning Body of Civil Law. For the reason, legal systems that are based on the Roman system of stature and code law are known as civil-law systems. This use of the term civil law should not be confused with its use as an alternate term for private law. Civil-law systems include both private law and public law. 大多数现代法典都可以追溯到罗马皇帝优士丁尼一世于公元500年组织编纂的著名法典。优士丁尼法典更新并总结了整个罗马法，被称为《优士丁尼法典》，即《国法大全》。因此，以罗马制定法体系和法典法体系为基础的法律体系以大陆法体系著称。“大陆法”这个术语的用法不应当与“私法”的替换性词语的用法相混淆。大陆法系包括了私法和公法。 The monumental Corpus Juris Civilis commissioned by Justinian still influences the evolution of law in virtually every civil law country. The roots of civil law are so deeply imbedded in French jurisprudence that French universities did not even teach common law until 1689. It affects legal rules, legal thought, legal classifications, the treatment of legal precedents and techniques, and the organization of court systems. 优士丁尼组织编纂的具有里程碑意义的《优士丁尼法典》仍然影响着每一个大陆法国家的法律演变。大陆法在法国法律体系的根基至深，法国的大学直到1689年才教授普通法。大陆法影响了法律规则、法律思维、法律分类、法律先例和技术的处理，以及法院体系的架构。 One interesting aspect of civil law is that it transfers from place to place more easily than common law. It is sometimes said that there are two branches of civil law: French and German. The civil codes of both countries have proven particularly adaptable. For example, the French Civil Codes (or Napoleonic Code), first promulgated by Napoleon I in 1804, is the basis of the laws of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the parts of Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Spain, Romania, and parts of Africa, and South America also borrow the Code Civil as a guide for local civil codes. In North America, for example, the civil laws of both the state of Louisiana and the Canadian province of Quebec are rooted in the Code Civil. Inherited from the Holy Roman Empire, the German Civil Code, which was enacted in 1900, also reveals the strong influence of Roman civil law. Although its reach has been mach narrower than that of the French Code Civil, it has been important in such far-reaching sites as Thailand, China, Japan, Eastern Europe, and Greece. 大陆法有趣的一个方面是，其从一个地方传播至另一个地方比普通法更为容易。有时有人说，大陆法有两个分支：法国和德国。事实证明，两个国家的民法典均尤其具有适应性。例如，《法国民法典》（《拿破仑法典》）首次由拿破仑颁布于1804年，其是比利时、荷兰、卢森堡、德国部分地区、瑞士和意大利的法律的基础。西班牙、罗马尼亚、非洲部分地区以及南美洲也借鉴了《法国民法典》，并将其作为当地法典的指引。例如，在北美洲，美国路易斯安那州和加拿大的魁北克的民法也都源于《法国民法典》。《德国民法典》于1900年颁布，源于神圣罗马帝国，也深受罗马民法的影响。尽管《法国民法典》的影响范围比《德国民法典》更小，但是前者对于诸如泰国、中国、日本、东欧和希腊等深受其影响的地区而言极其重要。 补充资料 Common law and equity are legal systems where decisions by courts are explicitly acknowledged to be legal sources（法律渊源）. The “doctrine of precedent', or stare desis (Latin for 'to stand by decisions') means that decisions by higher courts bind lower courts. Common law systems also rely on statutes（制定法）, passed by the legislature（立法机构）, but may make less of a systematic attempt to codify their laws than in a“civil law”system. Common law originated from England and has been inherited by almost every country once tied to the Brtish Empire ( except Malta, Scotland, the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the Canadian province of Quebec). 普通法和衡平法是明确承认将法院裁决作为法律渊源的法律体系。“遵循先例”原则即上级法院的裁决对下级法院有约束力。普通法系同样也依靠立法机构通过的制定法，但是其比大陆法系更少尝试体系化地对法律进行编纂。普通法源于英国，并曾被几乎每个以前的大英帝国殖民国家（马耳他、英格兰、美国路易斯安那州和加拿大魁北克除外）所继承。 In medieval England, the Norman Conquest led to a unification of various tribal（部落的） customs and hence a law“common”to the whole country. The common law developed when the English monarchy（君主制） had been weakened by the enormous cost of fighting for control over large parts of France. King John had been forced by his barons（男爵） to sign a document limiting his authority to pass laws. This “great charter”or Magna Carta（《大宪章》） of 1215 also required that the King’s entourage（随行人员） of judges hold their courts and judgments at“a certain place' rather than dispensing（分配） autocratic（专制；独裁） justice in unpredictable places about the country. A concentrated and elite group of judges acquired a dominant role in law making under this system, and compared to its European counterparts the English judiciary（司法机构） became highly centralized. In 1297, for instance, while the highest court in France had fifty-one judges, the English Court of Common Pleas had five. This powerful and tight knit（严密的） judiciary gave rise to a rigid（僵硬的） and inflexible system of common law. 在中世纪的英国，诺尔曼的征服导致了不同部落习俗的统一化，从而法律普遍被整个国家所采纳。英国君主制被为了争夺法国大部分地区的而产生的巨大的战争成本所削弱，普通法随之得到发展。约翰国王被他的男爵们强迫签署限制国王立法权的文件。这部1215年的《大宪章》要求国王的随行法官将其法院和裁判安置于特定的地方，而不是将专制法官分配在国内不可预测的地区。集聚的精英法官团体要求在普通法体系的立法中享有主导作用，相对于欧洲的其他国家，其英国的司法机构相当集中。例如，1927年，法国最高法院有51个法官，而英国普通民事诉讼法院只有5个法官。这种有权力又严密的司法机构导致了普通法的僵化和不灵活性。 As a result, as time went on, increasing numbers of citizens petitioned the King to override the common law, and on the King's behalf the Lord Chancellor gave judgment to do what was equitable in a case. From the time of Sir Thomas More，the first lawyer to be appointed as Lord Chancellor, a systematic body of equity grew up alongside the rigid common law, and developed its own Court of Chancery（衡平法院）. At first， equity was often criticized as erratic（不稳定的）, that it varied according to the length of the Chancellor's foot. But over time it developed solid principles. In the 19th century the two systems were fused（融合） into one another. In developing the common law and equity, academic authors have always played an important part. William Blackstone, from around 1760，was the first scholar to describe and teach it. But merely in describing, scholars who sought explanations and underlying structures（基本结构） slowly changed the way the law actually worked. 结果，随着时间的推移，向国王起诉的市民数量日益增加使普通法变得无效，代表国王的大法官对于案件中何为公平于做出裁判。从托马斯·莫尔（第一任被任命为大法官的律师）开始，系统性的衡平机构随者僵硬的普通法而发展起来，而后发展了其自己的衡平法院。一开始，衡平法常常因不稳定性而被诟病，即衡平法根据大法官的想法变化而改变。但是随着时间推移，衡平法也形成了稳定的法律原则。在19世纪，两种法律体系彼此融合。在普通法和衡平法的发展过程中，学者们一直扮演者重要的角色。从1760年左右起，威廉·布莱克斯通是第一个阐述并教授普通法和衡平法的学者。但是仅仅通过阐述，寻求解释和基本结构的学者就慢慢地改变了法律实际运作方式。 |
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