political system, such as the ECJ, has difficulty in honestly claiming to be
interpreting a fixed code. Efforts to produce pan-European legal codes, for
example in the law of contract, have turned out to be surprisingly heavily
influenced by aspects of English common law, suggesting that the traditional
difference may be more of procedure and vocabulary than of substance. The
most significant distinction now remaining between the Anglo-American and
continental systems probably lies in their respective methods of prosecuting
criminal law(seeinquisitorial system). As there is growing disenchantment
in Britain with the traditional criminal law mechanism, this distinction may
also become less vital. Recent moves to limit access to juries in the United
Kingdom certainly point to a declining differentiation.
The term civil law is also used within the common law system, where it
denotes a body of law distinct from criminal law. Here civil law concerns
contracts, torts, property, taxation and other matters which are not necessarily
connected with wrongdoing in the same sense as a criminal action. Such law is
concerned less with punishment than with restitution and conflict resolution.
Again, however, civil law in this sense can be more or less codified.
Civil Liberties
Civil liberties are freedoms or rights which are thought to be especially
valuable in themselves and vital to the functioning of a liberal and democratic
society. Emphases vary, but most lists of basic civil liberties will include
freedom of speech, freedom of religion and of thought, freedom of movement,
freedom of association, the right to a fair trial and freedom of the person.
These rights and liberties are essential protections against the arbitrary acts of
government and are fundamental to free political association.
In some political systems these freedoms are enshrined in a written docu-
ment or constitutional code, sometimes known as abill of rights, which is
enforced by a special court or constitutional tribunal. In the USA, for example,
a powerful body of jurisprudence and legal doctrine has been developed
around the first ten amendments to the Constitution—especially the first
amendment, the fourth amendment, thedue processclause of the fifth
amendment—and also, more recently, theequal protectionclause of the
fourteenth amendment. In other countries, for example the United Kingdom,
civil liberties are simply part of the ordinary law of the land. In the UK,
however, the passing of theHuman Rights Actin 1998 has moved the
country a long way towards a more codified version of civil liberties. In many
democracies a pressure group exists specifically to protect such liberties; the
UK has Liberty (the National Council for Civil Liberties), and the USA, the
American Civil Liberties Union.
Civil Liberties