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civil law

civil law

8 4.1
A system of law about private rights and disputes between people
  • noun
  • /ˈsɪvəl lɔː/
  • Specialized
translation icon : derecho civil
  • The reforms aimed to modernize the civil law system and make it more accessible to the public.
  • civil law system
  • civil law countries
  • civil law tradition

And when those police officers are sued in civil law, my office defends them.

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Examples

  • She decided to study civil law because she wanted to help people with legal disputes.

  • Many of those cases cannot be arbitrated in civil law countries.

    Academic text (1991)
  • I do civil law, not criminal law.

  • If this is not protected by civil law, then we run into a huge social problem.

    Blog text (23)
  • I don't do criminal law, I do civil law.

  • Let me start by emphasizing the importance of the civil law system in the legal structure of a free society.

    Academic text (2004)
  • Its legal system continues to be based on the existing Portuguese civil law system at the time of takeover.

    Academic text (2007)
  • They live under the same civil law as all other Israelis, which means they have due process and they have free movement.

  • Unlike their neighbors, both Mozambique and Angola practice civil law rather than common law, a legacy of their Portuguese colonial experience.

    Academic text (1998)
  • In many countries, disputes between individuals are resolved through civil law rather than criminal law.

How Binding

canon law
  • Specialized
4 8.9
civil law
  • Specialized
8 4.1
regulation
  • Formal
730 3.4
custom
148 1.3
guideline
344 3.1

Surface Forms

civil law singular
civil laws plural

Morphology

civil + law

The meaning is directly compositional: 'civil' (relating to citizens or private affairs) combined with 'law' yields a law system governing private rights and relations. This concept is expressed similarly across many languages (e.g., French droit civil, Spanish derecho civil), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents is likely to infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

Civil law comes from old Roman rules for citizens. The word civil originally meant about a 'citizen', so civil law became the name for the rules that deal with private rights and problems between people rather than crime.