List of national legal systems
Civil law
The source of law that is recognized as authoritative is codifications in a constitution or statute passed by legislature, to amend a code.

List of national legal systems

Section Title: Civil law
Table Section Text: The source of law that is recognized as authoritative is codifications in a constitution or statute passed by legislature, to amend a code.

Country	Description

Albania Albania	Based on Napoleonic Civil law. The Civil Code of the Republic of Albania, 1991 [1]

Angola Angola	Based on Portuguese civil law

Argentina Argentina	The Spanish legal tradition had a great influence on the Civil Code of Argentina, basically a work of the Argentine jurist Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield, who dedicated five years of his life on this task.

Andorra Andorra	Courts apply the customary laws of Andorra, supplemented with Roman law and customary Catalan law.

Armenia Armenia	Based on Napoleonic Civil law and traditional Armenian law.

Aruba Aruba	Based on Dutch civil law

Austria Austria	Based on Germanic Civil law. The Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (ABGB) of 1811

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan	Based on German, French, Russian and traditional Azerbaijani Law

Belarus Belarus	Based on Germanic Civil law

Belgium Belgium	The Napoleonic Code is still in use, although it is heavily modified (especially concerning family law)

Benin Benin	Based on Napoleonic Civil law.

Bolivia Bolivia	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina	Influenced by Austrian law. The Swiss civil law (Zivilgesetzbuch) was a model for the Law on Obligations of 1978.

Brazil Brazil	Based on the German, Italian, French and Portuguese doctrine and codes. However, in 2004 the Federal Supreme Court (STF) have gained the authority to create binding precedents (súmulas vinculantes) about Constitutional norms whose validity, interpretation and eficacy are controversial among the judiciary organs or among these and the public administration.

Bulgaria Bulgaria	Civil Law system influenced by Germanic and Roman law systems

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso	Based on French civil law system

Burundi Burundi

Chad Chad	Based on French civil law system

China People's Republic of China	Based on Germanic Civil law with influences from the Soviet Socialist law from Soviet Union

Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo	Based on the Napoleonic Civil law.

Democratic Republic of the Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo	Based on Belgian civil law

Ivory Coast Cote d'Ivoire	Based on French civil law system

Cambodia Cambodia

Cape Verde Cape Verde	Based on Portuguese civil law

Central African Republic Central African Republic	Based on French civil law system

Chile Chile	Based on the Chilean Civil Law inspired by the Napoleonic Civil Law. The Spanish legal tradition exercised an especially great influence on the civil code of Chile.

Colombia Colombia	Based on the Chilean Civil Law. Civil code introduced in 1873. Nearly faithful reproduction of the Chilean civil code

Costa Rica Costa Rica	Based on the Napoleonic Civil Law. First Civil Code (a part of the General Code or Carrillo Code) came into effect in 1841; its text was inspired by the South Peruvian Civil Code of Marshal Andres de Santa Cruz.

Croatia Croatia	Based on the Germanic Civil Law. Croatian Law system is largely influenced by German and Austrian law systems.

Cuba Cuba	Influenced by Spanish and American law with large elements of Communist legal theory.

Curaçao Curaçao	Based on Dutch Civil Law.

Czech Republic Czech Republic	Based on Germanic civil law. Descended from the Civil Code of the Austrian Empire (1811), influenced by German (1939–45) and Soviet (1947/68–89) legal codes during occupation periods, substantially reformed to remove Soviet influence and elements of socialist law after the Velvet Revolution (1989).

Denmark Denmark	Based on Nordic law. Scandinavian-German civil law

Dominican Republic Dominican Republic	Based on the Napoleonic Code

Ecuador Ecuador	Based on the Chilean civil law. Civil code introduced in 1861.

El Salvador El Salvador

Estonia Estonia	Based on German civil law.

Finland Finland	Based on Nordic law.

France France	Based on Napoleonic code (code civil of 1804)

Egypt Egypt	Based on Napoleonic civil law and Islamic law.

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea

Ethiopia Ethiopia

Gabon Gabon	Based on French civil law system

Guinea Guinea	Based on French civil law system, customary law, and decree

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau	Based on Portuguese civil law

Georgia (country) Georgia

Germany Germany	Based on Germanic civil law. The Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch of 1900 ("BGB").

Greece Greece	Based on Germanic civil law. The Greek civil code of 1946, highly influenced by traditional Roman law and the German civil code of 1900 (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch); the Greek civil code replaced the Byzantine–Roman civil law in effect in Greece since its independence (Νομική Διάταξη της Ανατολικής Χέρσου Ελλάδος, Legal Provision of Eastern Mainland Greece, November 1821: 'Οι Κοινωνικοί Νόμοι των Αειμνήστων Χριστιανών Αυτοκρατόρων της Ελλάδος μόνοι ισχύουσι κατά το παρόν εις την Ανατολικήν Χέρσον Ελλάδα', 'The Social [i.e.

Guatemala Guatemala	Based on Napoleonic civil law. Guatemala has had three Civil Codes: the first one from 1877, a new one introduced in 1933, and the one currently in force, which was passed in 1963.

Haiti Haiti	Based on Napoleonic civil law.

Honduras Honduras

Hungary Hungary	Based on Germanic, codified Roman law with elements from Napoleonic civil law.

Iceland Iceland	Based on Nordic law. Germanic traditional laws and influenced by Medieval Norwegian and Danish laws.

India India (only Goa, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli)	Based on Portuguese civil law

Italy Italy	Based on Germanic civil law, with elements of the Napoleonic civil code; civil code of 1942 replaced the original one of 1865

Japan Japan	Based on Germanic civil law. Japanese civil code of 1895.

Latvia Latvia	Based on Napoleonic and German civil law, as it was historically before the Soviet occupation. While general principles of law are prerequisites in making and interpreting the law, case law is also regularly applied to present legal arguments in courts and explain application of law in similar cases.

Lebanon Lebanon	Based on Napoleonic civil law.

Lithuania Lithuania	Modeled after Dutch civil law

Luxembourg Luxembourg	Based on Napoleonic civil law.

Libya Libya	Based on Napoleonic civil law, with Ottoman, Italian, and Egyptian sources

Macau Macau	Based on the Portuguese civil law; also influenced by the law of the PRC

Mauritius Mauritius

Mexico Mexico	Based on Napoleonic civil law."The origins of Mexico's legal system are both ancient and classical, based on the Roman and French legal systems, and the Mexican system shares more in common with other legal systems throughout the world (especially those in Latin America and most of continental Europe) ..."

Mongolia Mongolia	Based on Germanic civil law.

Montenegro Montenegro	Based on Napoleonic and German civil law. First: the General Property Code for the Principality of Montenegro of 1888, written by Valtazar Bogišić.

Mozambique Mozambique	Based on Portuguese civil law

Netherlands Netherlands	Based on Napoleonic code with German law influence

Nepal Nepal	Based on Civil Code

Norway Norway	Scandinavian-German civil law. King Magnus VI the Lawmender unified the regional laws into a single code of law for the whole kingdom in 1274.

Panama Panama

Paraguay Paraguay	The Paraguayan Civil Code in force since 1987 is largely influenced by the Napoleonic Code and the Argentinian Code

Peru Peru	Based on civil law system; accepts compulsory International Court of Justice ICJ jurisdiction with despotic and corrupting reservations;

Poland Poland	The Polish Civil Code in force since 1965

Portugal Portugal	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code and later by the German Civil Law

Taiwan Taiwan (Republic of China)	Influenced by German Civil Code. Enacted in 1931.

Romania Romania	Civil Code came into force in 2011. Based on the Civil Code of Quebec, but also influenced by the Napoleonic Code and other French-inspired codes (such as those of Italy, Spain and Switzerland)

Russia Russia	Civil Law system descendant from Roman Law through Byzantine tradition. Heavily influenced by German and Dutch norms in 1700–1800s.

Rwanda Rwanda	Mixture of Belgian civil law and English common law

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé e Príncipe	Based on Portuguese civil law

Serbia Serbia	First: the Civil Code of Principality of Serbia of 1844, written by Jovan Hadžić, was influenced by the Austrian Civil Code (Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch).

Slovakia Slovakia	Descended from the Civil Code of the Austrian Empire (1811), influenced by German (1939–45) and Soviet (1947/68–89) legal codes during occupation periods, substantially reformed to remove Soviet influence and elements of socialist law after the Velvet Revolution (1989).

Slovenia Slovenia	A Civil Law system influenced mostly by Germanic and Austro-Hungarian law systems

South Korea South Korea	Based on German civil law system. Also largely influenced by Japanese civil law which itself modelled after German one.

Spain Spain	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code, it also has some elements of Spain's legal tradition, starting with the Siete Partidas, a major legislative achievement from the Middle Ages.

Suriname Suriname	Based on Dutch civil law

Sweden Sweden	Scandinavian-German civil law. Like all Scandinavian legal systems, it is distinguished by its traditional character and for the fact that it did not adopt elements of Roman law.

Switzerland Switzerland	The Swiss Civil Code of 1908 and 1912 (obligations; fifth book)

East Timor Timor-Leste	Based on Portuguese civil law

Turkey Turkey	Modeled after the Swiss civil law (Zivilgesetzbuch) of 1907.

Ukraine Ukraine	Civil Code of Ukraine of 2004

United States United States – Louisiana	Law in the state of Louisiana is based on French and Spanish civil law Federal courts and 49 states use the legal system based on English common law (see below), which has diverged somewhat since the mid-nineteenth century in that they look to each other's cases for guidance on issues of first impression and rarely, if ever, look at contemporary cases on the same issue in the UK or the Commonwealth.

Uruguay Uruguay

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan	Represents an evolution of Soviet civil law. Overwhelmingly strong impact of the Communist legal theory is traceable.

Vietnam Vietnam	Communist legal theory and French civil law

Venezuela Venezuela	Civil law

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