Almost any phenomenon is presented by scientists and practitioners from the point of view of the structural-systematic method of research. Branches of law in this sense are no exception. Therefore, in science, to facilitate understanding of this sphere of jurisprudence, a civil law system was formed.
General concepts
The division of the entire branch of law into separate elements is not only scientific, but also practical. From the position of the first approach, the civil law system is a combination of 2 main parts - general and special. But the practical division allows you to select the necessary resources from the whole variety of sources for regulating a certain part of legal relations. You can clearly demonstrate this if you study both methods in more detail.
The civil law system in the light of the scientific approach is divided into the following elements:
- the general part, which may include provisions on subjects, on the essence of civil legal relations, on the objects of the latter, on the terms in force in this area of law and, of course, on the protection of civil rights and their legitimate use;
- a special part, which is more practical in nature and includes institutions of property law, obligatory, inheritance, etc. (all of them will be discussed in more detail below).
A practical approach divides the entire industry into five main components. So, civil law institutions are grouped as follows:
- Real law, which governs all aspects of the emergence, change and loss of subjects' rights to things. This industry contains concepts about them, how they are encumbered, transfer of ownership of things. Some authors divide this part into limited property rights and property rights. This approach causes some inconvenience, because in fact, “tears” the triumvirate of property rights - use, disposal and ownership.
- The law of obligations appears to be the most voluminous part of the civil. This is due to the fact that its composition includes both relations arising at the will of the parties (contract law) and relations not related to it (obligations from harm).
- Inheritance law mediates relations on the transfer of ownership to certain persons after the death of others.
- Exclusive rights - civil law institutions included in this part are the most “young”, in fact, their history begins in the late 19th century with the conclusion of international acts on copyright and industrial property law
- Protection of personal non-property rights - in this case we are talking about honor, dignity, the right to a name, etc.
The latter approach is not considered official, and most authors prefer to include it in a special part. Therefore, the definition of the phenomenon under consideration may look like this:
The civil law system is a set of institutions, conditionally divided into two components - the general part and the special one, and designed to consider a certain type of private law relationship.
In this regard, the system of law should be distinguished from the system of legislation.
Civil Law and Law System - Points of Difference
The approach in which the legal system becomes synonymous with the legal system is erroneous. As shown above, the legal system is the separation of legal relations on strictly defined objects. A system of civil law is always a combination of legal acts.
Thus, the legal system as a source of regulation can operate both in normative acts, and in judicial precedents or customs. In contrast, the legislative system rests only on sources published by the legislature.
The sources of the legal system may be acts of trade unions or patronages, and even treaties. For the system of legislation, this is impossible, even if the contract is concluded by the Parliament in the private law sphere.
Thus, it is necessary to include the Constitution, laws and by-laws in the system of civil legislation . This is their main difference from the legal system.