Civil law

The "Roman Law" and the "Civil Law" are convertible phrases, meaning the same system of jurisprudence; it is now frequently denominated the "Roman Civil Law." The word "civil," as applied to the laws in force in Louisiana, before the adoption of the Civil Code, is not used in contradistinction to the word "criminal," but must be restricted to the Roman law. It is used in contradistinction to the laws of England and those of the respective states. 5 La. 493. 1. The system of jurisprudence held and administered in the Roman empire, particularly as set forth in the compilation of Justinian and his successors, — comprising the Institutes, Code, Digest, and Novels, and collectively denominated the "Corpus Juris Civilis," — as distinguished from the common law of England and the canon law. 2. That rule of action which every particular nation, commonwealth, or city has established peculiarly for itself; more properly called "municipal" law, to distinguish it from the "law of nature," and from international law. The law which a people enacts is called the "civil law" of that people, but that law which natural reason appoints for all mankind is called the "law of nations," because all nations use it. Bowyer, Mod. Civil Law, 19.

Jus civitatis: the right of citizenship. Jus commune: the common law; common right. Jus cudendae monetae: the right of coining money. Jus cnrialitatis: the right of curtesy of Ungland. Jus dare: to make law. Jus deliberandi: the right of de Uberating. In Scotland, the right of the heir to consider for a year whether he will take up the succession. Jus dicere: to declare the law. Jus disponendi: the right of disposing, of disposition. Jus duplicatum: a double and fraud never dwell togetlier. Jus ex injuria non oritur: a rig Lt cannot arise from a wrong. Jus fiduciarium: a right in trust, a moral right. Jus fodiendi: a riglit of digging. Jus gentivun: the law of nations. Jus habendi et retinendi: the right to have and retain the profits, tithes, and offerings of a rectory or parsonage. Jus liauriendi: the right of drawing water. Jus in re: in Roman law, a right in a thing; a right of property availing against all the world, and particularly of an easement or servitude; droit droit, a right of property coupled with possassion. So also Jus in rem: a real right, a right in the thing itself; v. Ad rem, Jus ad rem. Jus in personam: a right against a person or particular class of persons; a personal right, a right founded on contract, or the act of another person. Jus legitimum: a legal riglrt; enforceable at law. Jus mariti: the right of a husband; as, to his wife's movables. Jus merum: bare right [without possession or right thereto]. Jus naturae: the law of nature. Jus naturale: natural law. Jus non scriptum: the unwritten law. Jus pascendi: right of pasture. Jus patronatus: 1. The right of patronage or presentation to a benefice. 2. A commission from the bishop awarded when two rival presentations are made to him upon the same avoidance, and directed to the bishop's chancellor and others of competent learning, who are to summon a jury of six clergymen and six laymen to determine who is the rightful patron. Jus possessionis: right of possession. Jus postliminii: the right of the owner to reclaim property after recapture in war. Jus precarium: a right existing only in curtesy, precarious. Jus presentationis: v. Jus patronatus, 1. Jus proprietatis: the right of property. Jus publicum privatorum pactis mutari non potest: a public right cannot be altered by the agreements of private persons. Jus relictse: the right of a widow in her deceased husband's personal goods; anciently, one half, or one third if there were children. Jus scriptum: the written law. Jus tertii: the right of a third party. Jus utendi: the right to use a thing, the opposite of jus abutendi.

[Lat. Jus civile Romanum.] The Roman law, as comprised in the Code, Pandects, Institutes and Novels of Justinian, and his successors, constituting together what is termed the Corpus Juris Civilis, as distinguished from the canon and common law. 1 Kent's Com. 638 — 643. See Corpus Juris Civilis. The Roman law of an earlier period was introduced into Britain on its subjugation by Agricola towards the end of the first century, and is supposed to have prevailed there until the abandonment of the island by the Romans at the beginning of the fifth century: after which it was superseded by the laws of the Saxons and other invaders. See Roman law. The civil law, properly so called, was first introduced during the reign of Stephen, (about the middle of the twelfth century,) and is represented by Blackstone and other standard writers on the law of England, as a foreign and rival system, between which and the native common law a continual struggle was maintained until the reign of Edward I., when the common law obtained a complete and permanent victory; the civil law being thenceforward confined within certain limits, and regarded or tolerated as a merely auxiliary and subordinate system. 1 Bl. Com. 18 — 26. 4 Id. 421—426. 3 Id. 87. It is not surprising that the merits of the civil law, and its influence upon the law of England should have been differently viewed and represented by English civilians; but none appear to have gone the length of Mr. Spence, who, in his late treatise on The Equitable Jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery, has undertaken to prove the common law itself to be, in many of its most important and (as generally supposed) characteristic doctrines and proceedings, of decidedly Roman origin. See Common law.