Talk:Civil law

Bouvier's Law Dictionary

CIVIL STATE. The union of individual men in civil society under a system of laws and a magistracy, or magistracies, charged with the administration of the laws. It is a fundamental law of the civil state, that no member of it shall undertake to redress or avenge any violation of his rights, by another person, but appeal to the constituted authorities for that purpose, in all cases in which is is possible for him to do so. Hence the citizens are justly considered as being under the safeguard of the law. 1 Toull. n. 201. Vide Self-defence.Bouvier's Law Dictionary Revised Sixth Edition, 1856

CIVILIAN. A doctor, professor, or student of the civil law. Bouvier's Law Dictionary Revised Sixth Edition, 1856

CIVIL OBLIGATION, Civil law. One which binds in law, vinculum juris, and which may be enforeed in a court of justice. Poth. Obl. 173, and 191. See Obligation. Bouvier's Law Dictionary Revised Sixth Edition, 1856

CIVIL COMMOTION. Lord Mansfield defines a civil commotion to be "an insurrection of the people for general purposes, though it may not amount to rebellion where there is an usurped power." 2 Marsh. lnsur. 793. In the printed proposals which are considered as making a part of the contract of insurance against fire, it is declared that

the insurance company will not make good any loss happening by any civil commotion. Bouvier's Law Dictionary Revised Sixth Edition, 1856

CIVIL DEATH, persons. The change of the state (q. v.) of a person who is declared civilly dead by judgment of a competent tribunal. In such case, the person against whom such sentence is pronounced is considered dead. 2 John. R. 218. See Gilb. Uses, 150; 2 Bulst. 188; Co. tit. 132; Jenk. Cent. 250; 1 Keble, 398; Prest. on Convey. 140. Vide Death, civil. Bouvier's Law Dictionary Revised Sixth Edition, 1856

CIVIL LAW. The municipal code of the Romans is so called. It is a rule of action, adopted by mankind in a state of society. It denotes also the municipal law of the land. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 11. See Law, civil.

CIVIL. This word has various significations. 1. It is used in contradistinction to barbarous or savage, to indicate a state of society reduced to order and regular government; thus we speak of civil life, civil society, civil government, and civil liberty

2. It is sometimes used in contradistinction to criminal, to indicate the private rights and remedies of men, as members of the community, in contrast to those which are public and relate to the government; thus we speak of civil process and criminal process, civil jurisdiction and criminal jurisdiction.

3. It is also used in contradistinction to military or ecclesiastical, to natural or foreign; thus we speak of a civil station, as opposed to a military or ecclesiastical station a civil death as opposed to a natural death; a civil war as opposed to a foreign war. Story on the Const. 789; 1 Bl. Coin. 6, 125, 251; Montesq. Sp. of Laws, B 1, c. 3; Ruth. Inst. B. 2, c. 2; Id. ch. 3Id. ch. 8, p. 359; Hein. Elem. Jurisp. Nat. B. 2, ch. 6.

CITIZEN, persons. One who, under the constitution and laws of the United States, has a right to vote for representatives in congress, and other public officers, and who is qualified to fill offices in the gift of the people. In a more extended sense, under the word citizen, are included all white persons born in the United States, and

naturalized persons born out of the same, who have not lost their right as such. This includes men, women, and children.

2. Citizens are either native born or naturalized. Native citizens may fill any office; naturalized citizens may be elected or appointed to any office under the constitution of the United States, except the office of president and vicepresident.

The constitution provides, that " the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states." Art. 4, s. 2.

3. All natives are not citizens of the United States; the descendants of the aborigines, and those of African origin, are not entitled to the rights of citizens. Anterior to the adoption of the constitution of the United States, each state

had the right to make citizens of such persons as it pleased. That constitution does not authorize any but white persons to become citizens of the United States; and it must therefore be presumed that no one is a citizen who is not white. 1 Litt. R. 334; 10 Conn. R. 340; 1 Meigs, R. 331.

4. A citizen of the United States, residing in any state of the Union, is a citizen of that state. 6 Pet. 761 Paine, 594;1 Brock. 391; 1 Paige, 183 Metc. & Perk. Dig. h. t.; vide 3 Story's Const. 1687 Bouv. Inst. Index, b. t.; 2 Kent, Com. 258; 4 Johns. Ch. R. 430; Vatt. B. 1, c. Id, 212; Poth. Des Personnes, tit. 2, s. 1. Vide Body Politic; Inhabitant. Bouvier's Law Dictionary Revised Sixth Edition, 1856

Quotes in regards to the Civil Law:

"If we search out the origins of Roman Law, we must study Babylon..." Sir Frederic Pollack and Frederic William Maitland, The History of the English Law Before the Time of Edward I, page 561, Cambridge Univ. Press 1968.

"The King of Babylon [Nimrod] built a bridge across the Euphrates River and gave himself the title of the great bridge builder. The title was transferred, centuries later, to a king of Asia minor [Attalus of Pergamos], was taken by the Caesars, and finally fell to the popes who boast in it today, Pontifex Maximus." Donald Grey Barnhouse, The Invisible War, page 194,Zondervan 1965.

"In the civil law world, the movement toward the extremes of the inquisitorial model was impelled by the revival of Roman Law. The influence of canonic procedure, and, most important, the rise of statism...the prince as the personification of the state had the power to punish and pardon unrestricted by rules..." John Henry Merryman, The Civil Law Tradition, 2nd Ed. 1985.

"The pry bar of Roman Law found its fulcrum on the hill of the Vatican." Donald Grey Barnhouse, The Invisible War, page 239-240, Zondervan 1965.

"The study of canon law came to be joined with the study of civil law in the Italian Universities and a degree conferred on a student who had completed a full course of study was Juris Utri que Doctor or Doctor of Both Laws, referring to the civil law and the canon law (the J.U.D. is still granted in some universities in the civil law world). Because the two were studied together in the Italian Universities, there was a tendency for them to influence each other...this Roman civil law-canon law jus commune was the generally applicable law of Europe." John Henry Merryman, The Civil Law Tradition, 2nd Ed. 1985.

"Civil law stems from Babylon and is inquisitorial, encouraging and requiring the state's violation of one's freedom of conscience. This ever-present trait arises from the Babylonian system's dependence upon the priest's judicial power to examine its subjects in the Babylonian deity's name. In theory, the Babylonian deity, using various names worldwide and personified in the state or its demagogue, invested his priests with the power to examine the consciences of devotees by whatever means necessary, granting absolution or condemnation according to their imperious pleasure. By entrusting themselves to a totalitarian state, the Babylonian settlers established statism." Brent Allan Winters, Excellence of the Common Law, Compared and Contrasted with Civil Law in Light of History, Nature and Scripture, Page 63, 2008.

"The XII Tables' chief provision stated that whatever the majority vote of the people ordained in the last instance is the law; by this provision, the people deemed their simple majority to be sovereign: the voice from which no appeal was allowed. The Roman people, therefore, replaced their Babylonian gods with a majority of their number. Moreover, since the majority's voice was the equivalent to supreme deity, the majority faction became, in effect, Rome's god, able to get its cravings without fear of the minority's appeal to any higher power. Any who were willing, the majority allowed to join their number and enjoy the spoils of the majority's goals: state favor and government largess through plunder of the minority. In time, the leaven of majority rule, unlimited by law and individual rights, played itself out in inevitable anarchy and confusion, moving the now bewildered and anxious Romans to pine for and receive an all-powerful imperator to commandeer them and bring stability, albeit only if temporary." Brent Allan Winters, Excellence of the Common Law, Compared and Contrasted with Civil Law in Light of History, Nature and Scripture, Page 107-108, 2008.

"Civil law, therefore, is an urban law tailored to a particular city (Rome), held forth to be the incarnation of the timeless principles of reason, and all that is needed to judge man's behavior at all times and in all places. Pope Gregory VII's claim to rule the world from Rome was in furtherance of his attempt to imitate Rome's emperors. Rome was a city that ruled her empire from Rome, by Romans. Roman was not even a country that ruled an empire, such as did England in ruling the British Empire. Suckled on Babylonian religion, the civil-law tradition matured in Roman power, where emperors executed Rome's will by sheer might - not always because she was right. Cities have been largely cultures of consumption or raw materials; rural areas, on the other hand, have been largely cultures of production or raw materials. Herein lies an observation from the scattering that occured at Babylon: in the false religion of human will, Babylon conceived civil law and government, which then became the law of the city of Rome, was compiled as Justinian's Code, and is now received as the law of many nations." Brent Allan Winters, Excellence of the Common Law, Compared and Contrasted with Civil Law in Light of History, Nature and Scripture, Page 141, 2008.Liberty farms iowa (talk) 16:08, 9 February 2014 (MST)

I don't necessarily agree with all of Mr. Clark's opinions, but he does make a some good points:Liberty farms iowa (talk) 18:16, 9 February 2014 (MST)

J. Reuben Clark, Stand Fast By Our Constitution: "As of the time of the writing of the Constitution, there were two great systems of law in the world — the Civil Law. . . . and the Common Law. . . . [p. 138]. . . the basic concept of these two systems was as opposite as the poles — in the Civil Law the source of all law is the personal ruler; . . . he [the ruler] is sovereign. In the Common Law, . . . the source of all law is the people; they, as a whole, are sovereign. During the centuries, these two systems have had an almost deadly rivalry for the control of society, the Civil Law and its fundamental concepts being the instrument through which ambitious men of genius and selfishness have set up and maintained despotisms; the Common Law, with its basic principles, being the instrument through which men of equal genius, but with the love of mankind burning in their souls, have established and preserved liberty and free institutions. . . The Civil Law was developed by Rome. . . . [p. 139] The people under this system have those rights, powers, and privileges, and those only which the sovereign considers are for their good or for his advantage. He adds or takes away as suits his royal pleasure. All the residuum of power is in the Emperor. Under this system, the people look into the law to see what they may do. They may only do what the Emperor has declared they may do. . . . Under our common law system, we look into the law to see what we may not do, for we may do everything we are not forbidden to do. This civil law concept explains why, over the centuries, it has been possible for the head of a state, operating under this concept, to establish with comparative ease a dictatorship. We must always remember that despotism and tyranny, with all their attendant tragedies to the people, as in Russia today, come to nations because one man, or a small group of men, seize and exercise by themselves the three great divisions of government—the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. . . . When the [Civil Law] concept has been operative, [peoples] have suffered the resulting tragedies—[such as] loss of liberty, oppression, great poverty among the masses, insecurity, [and] wanton disregard of human life. . . . [pp. 144–45]"Liberty farms iowa (talk) 18:16, 9 February 2014 (MST)