Source: http://freedom-school.com/law/mixed_jurisdictions.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 22:50:35+00:00

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Professor of Law, McGill University, Montreal (Canada); Distinguished Visiting Professor of Maritime and Commercial Law, Tulane University (United States of America); Counsel to Langlois Gaudreau O'Connor of Montreal.
It is interesting as well that outside of Europe and such places as Québec, Louisiana and South Africa, there is little discussion of mixed jurisdictions; in fact the subject is usually met with indifference. Facetiously, one might therefore define a mixed jurisdiction as a place where debate over the subject takes place.
It is also useful to remember that different mixtures of legal systems and institutions exist in the world today. Örücü, for example, distinguishes: (1) "mixed jurisdictions" such as Scotland, where the legal system consists of historically distinct elements but the same legal institutions (a kind of "mixing bowl"); (2) jurisdictions such as Algeria, in which both the elements of the legal system and the legal institutions are distinct, reflecting both socio-cultural and legal-cultural differences (assimilated to a "salad bowl"); (3) jurisdictions such as Zimbabwe where legal dualism or pluralism exists, requiring internal conflict rules (akin to a "salad plate"); and (4) jurisdictions where the constituent legal traditions have become blended (like a "purée"), either because of legal-cultural affinity (e.g. Dutch law, blending elements of French, German, Dutch and Roman law) or because of a dominant colonial power or national élite which eliminates local custom and replaces it with a compound legal system drawn from another tradition (e.g. Turkey, blending elements of Swiss, French, German and Italian law).12 She also notes the existence today of "systems in transition", such as Slovenia, in which only time will determine the character of the composite system now being developed.
This paper will first define legal systems, legal traditions, the civil and the common law, statutory law, mixed legal systems and mixed jurisdictions.
It will then distinguish the civil law from the common law in their approach, style, interpretation, and substance. Various specific points of comparison as between the two legal traditions will be reviewed, together with a number of resulting differences in their respective substantive rules.
The influence of certain civilian principles on contemporary common law will be examined, as well as the influence of the modern lex mercatoria in promoting the beginnings of a transnational, trans-systemic commercial law resembling the historic "Law Merchant".
Finally, some random reflections on my own experience of legal practice, legislation and law teaching in a mixed jurisdiction (Québec) will be presented. These reflections convince me that the long-term survival of a mixed jurisdiction is greatly facilitated by (and perhaps even contingent upon) the presence of at least two official (or at least widely-spoken) languages in that jurisdiction, each mirroring and supporting the legal systems there. Added to this is the need for dual systems of legislation, a federal system and even dual systems of courts. Only with such reinforcement can a mixed jurisdiction truly flourish, especially in the face of the contemporary pressures of "globalisation".
The ultimate purpose of my analysis will be to present a general view of mixed legal systems and mixed jurisdictions. The basic tenet of this paper is that both the civil law and the common law traditions make valuable contributions to mixed legal systems and mixed jurisdictions, provided that the two traditions are duly respected and kept in equilibrium, so that one does not overshadow and obliterate the other. Only in that way can the "convergence" of the two traditions, now under way in Europe, truly enrich and strengthen national and international legal culture.
It is appropriate to first define various components of mixed jurisdictions or mixed legal systems of which mixed jurisdictions may form part.
In my view, the term "legal system" refers to the nature and content of the law generally, and the structures and methods whereby it is legislated upon, adjudicated upon and administered, within a given jurisdiction.
A legal system may even govern a specific group of persons. Thus a person belonging to various groups could be subject to as many legal systems. For example, a Moslem student attending McGill University in Montreal might be subject to the rules and judicial institutions of Canada, Québec, the University and the Moslem faith. This paper, however, will focus principally on State legal orders, rather than those based on the "personal laws" of specific populations.
A legal tradition is thus the general culture underlying a family of similar legal systems. Since most legal systems duplicated the law administered in another jurisdiction (e.g. former British colonies duplicated British law), major legal traditions tend to be associated with the original legal system as it then existed rather than as it exists today.
Statutory law, or law found in legislation other than civil codes, is basic to both the civil and common law. In common law jurisdictions, most rules are found in the jurisprudence and statutes complete them. In civil law jurisdictions, the important principles are stated in the code, while the statutes complete them.
A mixed legal system is one in which the law in force is derived from more than one legal tradition or legal family. For example, in the Québec legal system, the basic private law is derived partly from the civil law tradition and partly from the common law tradition. Another example is the Egyptian legal system, in which the basic private law is derived partly from the civil law tradition and partly from Moslem or other religiously-based legal traditions.
A mixed jurisdiction is a country or a political subdivision of a country in which a mixed legal system prevails. For example, Scotland may be said to be a mixed jurisdiction, because it has a mixed legal system, derived in part from the civil law tradition and in part from the common law tradition. This definition of "mixed jurisdiction" is very similar to those of Walton and Evans-Jones cited above, except that the term as used here describes only the territory in which a mixed legal system exists, rather than the mixed legal system itself.
Maritime law also consists of modern international Conventions, including Conventions on collision, salvage, the carriage of goods by sea, maritime liens and mortgages, and shipowners' limitation, for example. Such Conventions have been able to bridge the gap between the two principal Western legal families and are applied similarly by the judicial institutions of different jurisdictions (e.g. France and the United Kingdom). They thereby foster international harmonisation of law, by promoting a constructive synthesis of the legal traditions from which they sprang.
The development of the common law illustrates the point. Common law derives in part from the French local customs imported from Normandy into England by William the Conqueror in 1066. Moreover, common law, being more vulnerable than civil law to foreign intrusions because of its less systematic structure and less coherent nature, was "civilised" at various points throughout history, particularly in recent years.27 In 1832, the Chancellor's permission to take suit was eliminated.28 In 1852, forms of action were abolished.29 In 1873, the Courts were unified.30 In 1875, a Court of Appeal was established.31 New substantive law of a civilian flavour was introduced (see infra) and recently, case management rules have been added.
To understand civil law one must realise that Scotland and South Africa, for example, received Roman law and have retained it without benefit of codification.
Continental Europe received civil law from ancient Rome and then retained it by codification, imposed for the most part by victories of Napoleon and later on by the example and great influence of the French Civil Code of 1804.32 Other jurisdictions, particularly the countries of Latin America, as well as Egypt, imitated the French Code (or other codes based upon it) in enacting their own codifications.
Québec and Louisiana, for their part, received civil law and retained it by codifications developed internally, while also incorporating into their codes certain elements of common law origin.
Civil law jurisdictions often have a statute law that is heavily influenced by the common law.
"The Code Napoléon ... was conceived as a complete legislative statement of principles rather than rules and as a truly revolutionary enactment designed to remake the law in the image of a new and better society. It was founded on the premise that for the first time in history a purely rational law should be created, free from all past prejudices and deriving its content from 'sublimated common sense'; its moral justification was not to be found in ancient custom or monarchical paternalism but in its conformity with the dictates of reason. And thus its fundamental precepts are presented with the claim of universality, namely, as an assertion that a legal order is legitimate only when it does not contradict such precepts."
(d) the modern period saw the influence of English law which had been given authority by the Union of the Parliaments in 1707 and the establishment of the House of Lords as the final court of appeal of Scotland in civil matters.
The feudal period saw Scotland's establishment as a separate kingdom; the introduction of feudalism from England, which continues even now to be a basic element of the law of land ownership, particularly in the Highlands,40 and the influence of Roman Catholic Canon Law, administered by Church courts, which continues to be at the basis of much modern Scots family law. The establishment of sheriffdoms under King David I (1124-53), where the sheriffs administered civil and criminal justice in the name of the king and heard appeals against rulings of the baronial courts, was also of major importance in this first period. The other main source of law in and after this initial period was custom.
Following the death of King Robert the Bruce in 1329, Scottish law entered a so-called "dark age", resulting from ongoing political strife, economic difficulty and weak government. This period, however, was the golden age of the "Auld Alliance" between Scotland and France, which saw the adoption of French institutions in Scotland and the training of many Scottish lawyers in France. From this period, the Scottish legal system took on its character as a fundamentally civilian system resembling those of Continental Europe, and thus differing from what emerged as the "common law" or "Anglo-American" tradition. In this same period, a Scottish Parliament was created, the Church courts consolidated their hold on marriage and family law, and in 1532, the Court of Session was established.
The third major period, the age of the "reception" of "Roman Law" in Scotland, was really the fruit of the Renaissance and the reawakening of classical learning to which the Renaissance gave birth on the Continent. Scottish lawyers, trained in the great universities such as Paris, Orléans, Utrecht and Leiden, returned home imbued with the terminology, concepts and structured thinking of Roman law and familiar with the Institutes of Gaius and the Digest of Justinian, as well as with the writings of sixteenth and seventeenth century European civilian legal scholars. Civilian rules and principles were thus incorporated into the corpus of Scots law, to supply rules and principles which the old customary law could not provide.41 It is to this period that the great "institutional writings" on Scots law belong, notably the works of STAIR, 42 ERSKINE, 43 BELL44 and a few others,45 the authority of whose statements on any point is even today "... generally accepted as equivalent to that of an Inner House decision to the same effect." 46 The immense importance of this "doctrine" as a source of law relied upon by judges as much as, if not more than, precedent, is, of course, in itself evidence of the civilian character of Scots private law.
The period of "reception" also brought momentous political changes affecting law and the legal/judicial system in Scotland. The Scottish Reformation culminated in 1560 in the removal of the Roman Catholic Church courts and their jurisdiction over marriage, annulment and legitimacy. The Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England under James VI in 1603 involved Scotland in the struggle of King and Parliament which raged throughout the seventeenth century in England. The establishment of the General Register of Sasines in 1617 (for the registration of land ownership and encumbrances); and the creation of the High Court of Justiciary in 1672 (still Scotland's highest criminal court), left enduring effects. The Treaty of Union of 1707,47 which eliminated the Scottish Parliament, while purporting to preserve Scots laws and courts,48 in fact resulted in English law replacing Roman law as the most influential external influence on the legal system. Finally, the quelling of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 culminated in the eradication of the clan system and the abolition of military service as a condition of landholding.
The influence of "Roman law" began to decline towards the end of this period in part because the Court of Session had by then developed its own jurisprudence, and the great institutional authors had commented on Scots law, to the point where reference to Continental jurisprudence and doctrine became less and less necessary. Scottish law students found less reason to study in France or Belgium, where the new codifications (non-existent at home) increasingly formed the basis of the curriculum. Finally, after 1707, the role of the United Kingdom Parliament as the legislature for Scotland and the position of the House of Lords as the final court of appeal in Scottish civil cases resulted in the gradual introduction of more and more elements of common law into the Scottish legal system.
In the modern period, beginning about 1800, Scots law has been increasingly affected by English common law and statutory law, especially in commercial, labour and administrative matters.49 The doctrine of judicial precedent has been accepted, and Scottish lawyers have looked to English case law and legal literature. European Union law has also exerted a major influence in Scotland, as it has in other parts of the United Kingdom, since 1973.
Nevertheless, the civilian heritage is still very evident in the structure of Scots private law, as well as in its terminology and content (e.g. obligations, quasi-contract, delict, moveables and immoveables, corporeal and incorporeal moveables, prescription, servitudes, hypothecs, etc.) and in the prevalence of Latin (e.g. jus quaesitum tertio, arrestment ad fundandam jurisdictionem, forum non conveniens, negotiorum gestio, condictio indebiti), as well as in the deductive method of legal reasoning from general principles to particular applications.
"While, however, Scots law is a distinct legal system, it is far from being an original legal system in the sense of having developed independently of outside influences: there is little in Scots law which is purely native to the country; most of the Scots law has been contributed to Scotland by other legal systems, and the distinctiveness of the Scottish legal system springs from the original way in which the law-makers of Scotland have over past centuries formed a coherent body of law out of these diverse contributions."
The Republic of South Africa is a mixed jurisdiction whose legal system reflects elements of both civil and common law, as well as African tribal customary law. The civilian heritage is "Roman-Dutch law", brought to the Cape of Good Hope by the first Dutch settlers about 1652 when the colony, then under the administration of the Dutch East India Company, served primarily as a "refreshment station" for Dutch merchants and seafarers on the long journey between the Netherlands and the East Indies.
Roman-Dutch law continued to develop after the British occupations of 1795 and 1806 and the transfer of the Cape to Britain in 1815, and was taken by the voortrekkers, beginning in the 1830s, into the territories later known as the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.59 As the nineteenth century progressed, however, English law began to be imported by statute into the Cape Colony, including the principle of freedom of testation, as well as in commercial and corporate fields, insurance, insolvency, constitutional, administrative and criminal matters.
Following the Boer War (1899-1902) and the establishment of the Union of South Africa (1910), English and Roman-Dutch law were largely fused into a single system, thanks in good part to the influence of Lord DE VILLIERS, Chief Justice of Cape Colony and later of the Union for forty-one years, whose work was continued by Chief Justice J.R. INNES, who served from 1914 to 1927. Subsequently, the Appellate Division experienced a period of "purism", associated with the tenure of L.C. STEYN as Chief Justice from 1959 to 1971, in which an effort was made to purify Roman-Dutch law from English accretions.60 Purism was associated with the ascendancy of apartheid.
Unlike the French Civil Code of 1804, with its revolutionary ideals, and the Italian or German codes, aimed at consolidating a newly-achieved national unity, the Civil Code of Lower Canada reflected the conservative, family-oriented values of the largely rural (and mostly francophone) society of nineteenth-century Québec, as well as the economic liberalism of the burgeoning commercial and industrial (and primarily anglophone) élites concentrated in Montreal. In structure and style, the Code reflected the French Civil Code of 1804 very closely. Nevertheless, it rejected major elements of the French Code which were new law (since 1763 or 1789) and socially unacceptable to most Quebecois (notably divorce), while maintaining elements of the pre-revolutionary French law (e.g. the fideicommissary substitution). It also added certain local elements.
The new Civil Code gives full recognition to the human person and human rights as the central focus of all private law, while also consolidating the position of the Code as the ius commune of Québec.87 Its specific rules give expression, in more contemporary language, to the social changes in Québec society since the "Quiet Revolution". The new Code continues to reflect the impact of certain English principles and institutions (e.g. freedom of testation, trusts - now calleed "foundations" - and "moveable hypothecs" -- an adaptation of the English chattel mortgage), while still respecting the basic structure and terminology of civilian codification. It takes account of contemporary technological developments (e.g. computerisation of registers of civil status and registers of personal and moveable real rights). It also includes a very important Book X on private international law, which is marked by recent developments in the conflict of laws in Europe (e.g. the Rome Convention 1980 88 and the Swiss Statute on Private International Law 1987 89 ), and which also incorporates a number of common law concepts, such as forum non conveniens, into what is essentially a civilian codal regime. The French and English versions of the new Code are official, and may be used to assist in interpreting ambiguous provisions.
After the transfer to the U.S., pressure came from incoming Americans to impose the common law in Louisiana, particularly because six different compilations of Spanish laws existed and it was unclear which of over 20,000 individual laws of Spain applied in the territory. Thanks, however, to the leadership of Edward LIVINGSTON, a New York common lawyer who had become a convert to the superiority of the civil law after moving to New Orleans, and following a political crisis surrounding the matter, a two-man committee was mandated by the Louisiana legislature to prepare a compilation of the civil law applicable in the "Territory of Orleans".92 The product was a digest,93 known as the Louisiana Civil Code of 1808, which was approved even by Governor CLAIBORNE, who had formerly been a major advocate of the common law.
Prior to the arrival of Islam in 641 AD, Roman law prevailed in Egypt. The Islamic conquest led, however, to the imposition of Islamic Sharia law, consisting of a compilation of Islamic jurisprudence, rooted in the Koran (the Islamic Holy Book), the Sunna (the Prophet's traditions), the Ijma (the consensus of opinion of Moslem jurists) and other sources. This law was administered by Sharia courts, empowered to hear civil, criminal and family matters within their assigned territories.106 Sharia law prevailed for approximately eleven hundred years, but, interestingly, permitted non-Moslems to apply their own religiously-based family law systems, so that, in that domain, Egypt may be said to have been a mixed legal system for centuries.
The accession to power of Mohammed Ali as ruler of Egypt in 1805 resulted in the increasing influence of European law, and particularly of French law, in the country. Beginning in 1856, a system of fourteen judicial councils was created to administer non-Moslem family law in Egypt (especially for the benefit of foreign residents). In 1875, a system of "mixed courts" was established, to administer the so-called "mixed codes", being different civil, commercial, penal and procedural codes governing relations between foreigners or between foreigners and Egyptians. These codes, notably the Civil Code of 1875, were modelled on the corresponding codes in force in France. In fact, the Egyptian government would only adopt them after their approval by those foreign countries (principally Britain and France) which enjoyed a privileged status in Egypt.107 In 1883, a system of "national courts" was set up to administer French-inspired national codes on the same subjects applicable to Egyptian citizens. Meanwhile, the Sharia courts continued to enforce Islamic Sharia law in respect of family matters among Moslems and Moslems married to non-Moslems. And different religious judicial councils applied their respective religious rules of family law among the non-Moslem Egyptian minorities, such as the Coptic Christians.
Today, under Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution of 1971, as amended in 1980, Islamic Sharia law is the principal source of legislation in Egypt. Both Moslem and civilian legal systems coexist, however, as illustrated in a decision of the Supreme Constitutional Court in 1985,110 holding that Article 226 of the Civil Code, permitting interest to be charged on overdue debts, was not, as alleged, unconstitutional under Article 2 of the Constitution, because that provision was not retroactive, and because its implementation in specific fields of private law was not automatic, but required express amending legislation.
Modern Egyptian law is therefore an intriguing mixed legal system, blending civilian rules fashioned, in style, structure and content, on the model of the French Civil Code of 1804, with the law of Islam and, in family law areas (such as marriage, divorce, filiation and alimentary obligations), with a variety of religiously-founded personal laws.
A major difference between the civil law and common law is that priority in civil law is given to doctrine (including the codifiers' reports) over jurisprudence, while the opposite is true in the common law.
This difference in priority can be explained by the role of the legislator in both traditions. French civil law adopts Montesquieu's theory of separation of powers, whereby the function of the legislator is to legislate, and the function of the courts is to apply the law. Common law, on the other hand, finds in judge-made precedent the core of its law.
The common law author focuses on fact patterns. He or she analyses cases presenting similar but not identical facts, extracting from the specific rules, and then, through deduction, determines the often very narrow scope of each rule, and sometimes proposes new rules to cover facts that have not yet presented themselves.
The civilist focuses rather on legal principles. He or she traces their history, identifies their function, determines their domain of application, and explains their effects in terms of rights and obligations. At this stage, general and exceptional effects are deduced. Apart from requiring some statutory analysis, determining the area of application of a principle involves some induction from the existing case law, while delimiting exceptions involves some deduction.
Common law jurisprudence sets out a new specific rule to a new specific set of facts and provides the principal source of law, while civil law jurisprudence applies general principles, and is only a secondary source of law of explanation.
Stare decisis is unknown to civil law, where judgments rendered by judges only enjoy the "authority of reason".115 This distinction makes sense. Confusion would result in the common law world if the core of the law was to differ from one court to the other. This is not true in the civil law world, where the general principles are embodied in national codes and statutes, and where doctrine provides guidance in their interpretation, leaving to judges the task of applying the law.
Civil law judgments are written in a more formalistic style than common law judgments. Civil law decisions are indeed shorter than common law decisions, and are separated into two parts - the motifs (reasons) and the dispositif (order). This is because civil law judges are especially trained in special schools created for the purpose, while common law judges are appointed from amongst practising lawyers, without special training.
Although statutes have the same paramountcy in both legal traditions, they differ in their functions. Civil law codes provide the core of the law - general principles are systematically and exhaustively exposed in codes116 and particular statutes complete them. Finally follows the jurisprudence.
This difference in style is linked to the function of statutes. Civilian statutory general principles need not be explained, precisely because they are not read restrictively (not being exceptions), but need to be stated concisely if the code is to be exhaustive. Common law statutory provisions need not be concise, because they cover only the specific part of the law to be reformed, but must be precise, because the common law courts restrict rules to the specific facts they are intended to cover.
It is not surprising that adjectival law (which includes the rules of procedure and evidence) was traditionally given considerable attention in common law jurisdictions, while substantive law habitually received more attention in civil law jurisdictions.
It follows that the civil law does not have a clearly defined system of remedies, but relies rather on the courts to choose or even create the appropriate remedy.141 Conversely, the common law does not have a unitary system of rights and obligations. Courts having jurisdiction to hear a matter falling within a cause of action set the rights and obligations au fur et à mesure that they are called to rule on them; it is only through precedents that specific rights (always in relation to a cause of action) can be found.
The following abbreviations have been used in the footnotes: A.C.: Appeal Cases (Law Reports); A.L.J.R.: Australian Law Journal Reports; A.L.R.: Australian Law Reports; All E.R.: All England Reports; Am. J. Comp. L.: American Journal of Comparative Law; AMC: American Maritime Cases; C.C.L.I.: Canadian Cases on the Law of Insurance; Clunet: Journal du droit international; Comp. and Int'l. L. J. of Southern Africa: Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa; D.L.R.: Dominion Law Reports; E.R.: English Reports; Edinburgh L. Rev.: Edinburgh Law Review; ETL: European Transport Law; Fed. Cas: Federal Cases; Fordham L. Rev.: Fordham Law Review; JMLC: Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce; J.O.: Journal Officiel (France); LMCLQ: Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly; L.Q.R.: The Law Quarterly Review; La. Acts: Louisiana Acts; La. L. Rev.: Louisiana Law Review; Lloyd's Rep.: Lloyd's Reports; Louisiana Rev.: Louisiana Review; Maine L.R.: Maine Law Review; McGill L.J.: McGill Law Journal; Nfld. & P.E.I.R.: Newfoundland & Prince Edward Island Reports; N.R.: National Reporter; N.Z.L.R.: New Zealand Law Review; P.C.: Privy Council; RabelsZ: Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht; Rev. cr. dr. int. pr.: Revue critique de droit international privé; R.S.C.: Revised Statutes of Canada; SA: South African Law Reports; S.C.: Session Cases (Scotland); S.C.R.: Supreme Court Reports (Canada); S.C.L.R.: Session Court Law Reports (Scotland); Sess. Cas.: Session Cases (Scotland); S.L.T.: Scots Law Times; Sp.: Spinks Ecclesiastical & Admiralty Reports (England); Syracuse J. Int'l. L. & Com.: Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce; U.S.: United States Reports (U.S. Supreme Court); Tul. L. Rev.: Tulane Law Review; Tul. Mar. L.J.: Tulane Maritime Law Journal; Tulane Law Rev.: Tulane Law Review; U.B.C. L. Rev.: University of British Columbia Law Review; Unif. L. Rev.: Uniform Law Review; West's L.S.A.: West's Louisiana Statutes Annotated; W.L.R.: Weekly Law Reports.
1 See B. Markesinis (ed.), The Gradual Convergence: Foreign Ideas, Foreign Influences and English Law on the Eve of the 21st Century, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1993).
2 F.P. WALTON, The Scope and Interpretation of the Civil Code, Wilson & Lafleur Ltée, Montreal (1907), reprinted by Butterworths, Toronto (1980), with an introduction by M. TANCELIN, 1.
3 R. EVANS-JONES, "Receptions of Law, Mixed Legal Systems and the Myth of the Genius of Scots Private Law" (1998), 114 L.Q.R. 228, 228.
4 See R. DAVID / J.E.C. BRIERLEY, Major Legal Systems in the World Today, 3 Ed., Stevens & Sons, London, 1985, paras. 56-58 at 75-79.
5 See R. ZIMMERMANN, "Das römisches-holländisches Recht in Zimbabwe" (1991), 55 RabelsZ 505.
6 See J.H. PAIN, "The Reception of English and Roman-Dutch Law in Africa with Reference to Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland" (1978), 11 Comp. and Int'l. L. J. of Southern Africa 137.
7 Roman-Dutch law, as applied in the province of Cape of Good Hope on 1 January 1920, was made applicable in what is now the Republic of Namibia when that territory was taken over by South Africa after World War I. Since attaining independence on 20 March 1990, Roman-Dutch law continues to apply there by virtue of Art. 140 I of the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia. See R. ZIMMERMANN / D. VISSER, "South African Law as a Mixed Legal System", being the Introduction to R. Zimmermann / D. Visser (eds.), Southern Cross. Civil Law and Common Law in South Africa, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1996), 3, n. 16. See also D. CAREY MILLER, "South Africa: A Mixed System Subject to Transcending Forces", in E. ÖRÜCÜ, E. Attwooll & S. Coyle (eds.), Studies in Legal Systems: Mixed and Mixing, Kluwer Law International, The Hague, London, Boston (1996), 165-191.
8 See M.H.J. VAN DEN HORST, The Roman-Dutch Law in Sri Lanka (1985); A. COORAY, "Sri Lanka: Oriental and Occidental Laws In Harmony", in ÖRÜCÜ et al, supra note 7, 71-88.
9 In the case of Scotland, see R. EVANS-JONES, supra note 3, 228.
10 DAVID & BRIERLEY, supra note 4, para. 58 at 77-78.
11 See the Québec Civil Code 1994, enacted by S.Q. 1991, c. 64 and in force1 January 1994, in which the basic law on unjust enrichment, as a quasi-contract, is contained at Arts. 1493-1496. The essence of the obligation is stated concisely in general wording, typical of civilian drafting, at Art. 1493: "A person who is enriched at the expense of another shall, to the extent of his enrichment, indemnify the other for his correlative impoverishment, if there is no justification for the enrichment or impoverishment." By comparison, in uncodified civilian legal systems, such as Scots law, the original civilian principle of unjust enrichment has been somewhat altered and qualified by the influence of the restitution concept of English common law. See discussion surrounding note 53 infra.
12 See E. ÖRÜCÜ, "Mixed and Mixing Systems: A Conceptual Search", in ÖRÜCÜ et al, supra note 7, 335 at 344-335.
13 J.H. MERRYMAN, The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Western Europe and Latin America, 2 Ed., Stanford University Press, Stanford, California (1985), 1.
14 Quebec Research Centre of Private and Comparative Law, Private Law Dictionary and Bilingual Lexicons, 2 Ed. Revised and Enlarged, Les Editions Yvon Blais, Cowansville, Québec (1991), 243.
15 DAVID & BRIERLEY, supra note 4, para. 15 at 19.
16 MERRYMAN, supra note 13 at 1, 2.
17 DAVID & BRIERLEY, supra note 4, paras. 16-17 at 20, 22.
18 Ibid., para. 14 at 18 and paras. 22-25 at 27-31.
19 MERRYMAN, supra note 13 at 5.
20 The Corpus Juris Civilis is the name given to a four-part compilation of Roman law prepared between 528 and 534 AD by a commission appointed by Emperor Justinian and headed by the jurist Tribonian. The Corpus includes the Code (a compilation of Roman imperial decrees issued prior to Justinian's time and still in force, arranged systematically according to subject-matter); the Digest (or Pandects) (fragments of classical texts of Roman law by well-known Roman authors such as Ulpian and Paul, composed from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD, arranged in 50 books subdivided into titles); the Institutes (a coherent, explanatory text serving as an introduction to the Digest, based on a similar and earlier work by the jurist Gaius); and the Novellae (Novels) (a compilation of new imperial decrees issued by Justinian himself). See A.N. YIANNOPOULOS, Louisiana Civil Law System Coursebook, Part I, Claitor's Publishing Division, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (1977), 9-10.
21 The Private Law Dictionary, supra note 14 at 62 defines "civil law" as follows: "Law whose origin and inspiration are largely drawn from Roman law." The definition proceeds to incorporate the following quotation from P.-A. CRÉPEAU, "Foreword" to the Report on the Quebec Civil Code, vol. 1, Draft Civil Code, Editeur officiel du Québec, Québec (1978), xxvii-xxviii: "The Civil Law is not simply a collection of rules drawn from Roman, ecclesiastical or customary law, and handed down to us in a solidified form. The Civil Law, as it was so aptly described by Professor R. DAVID [...] consists essentially of a 'style': it is a particular mode of conception, expression and application of the law, and transcends legislative policies that change with the times in the various periods of the history of a people."
22 The Private Law Dictionary, supra note 14, 72 defines "common law" as follows: "Legal system of England and of those countries which have received English law, as opposed to other legal systems, especially those evolved from Roman law. 'The rule [respecting the transfer of ownership] which the courts of France and Québec have rejected has also managed to survive, albeit in modified form, in the more protective judicial atmosphere of the common law, where it has finally been codified in the Sale of Goods Acts of England and the other provinces of Canada' (LE DAIN, (1952-55), 1 McGill L.J. 237 at 251). Obs. Canada is a Common law country, except in the case of Québec which, since the transfer of New France to the British Crown by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, has retained its law of French derivation in matters of 'property and civil rights', pursuant to the terms of the 'Quebec Act' of 1774."
23 DAVID & BRIERLEY, supra note 4, para. 56 at 76.
24 See W. TETLEY, "The General Maritime Law: The Lex Maritima" (1996), 20 Syracuse J. Int'l. L. & Com. 105, reprinted in , ETL 469.
25 Ibid., Syracuse J. Int'l. L. & Com., 115-117, 122-128; , ETL 478-480, 484-491. See also W. TETLEY, "A Definition of Canadian Maritime law" (1996), 30 U.B.C. L. Rev. 137, 151-156; idem, "Maritime Law as a Mixed Legal System" (1999), 23 Tul. Mar. L.J. 1 at 4-6 and 10-29.
26 R. POUND described the history of a system of law as largely a history of borrowings of legal materials from other legal systems. See A. WATSON, Legal Transplants: An Approach to Comparative Law, 2 Ed., University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia (1993), 22.
27 H.P. GLENN, "La Civilisation de la Common Law", Mélanges Germain Brière, E. Caparros, (dir.), Collection Bleue, Wilson & Lafleur Ltée, Montreal (1993), 596-616.
28 Uniformity of Process Act, 1832, 2 & 3 Will. IV, c. 39. See generally J.H. BAKER, An Introduction to English Legal History, 3 Ed., Butterworths, London (1990), 79-81.
29 Common Law Procedure Act, 1852, 15 & 16 Vict., c. 76 (the form of action no longer needed to be stated in the new uniform writ and different courses of action could be joined in the same writ). The forms of action had been largely abolished by the Uniformity of Process Act, 1832, supra note 28, and by the Real Property Limitation Act, 1833, 3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 27, sect. 36.
30 The Judicature Act, 1873, 36 & 37 Vict., c. 66.
31 The Judicature Act, 1873, sect. 4 had established the Court of Appeal and the High Court, as divisions of the Supreme Court of Judicature established by sect. 3. This Act came into force at the same time as the Judicature Act, 1875, 38 & 39 Vict., c. 77, which made some other modifications as well. See BAKER, supra note 28 at 60, n. 60.
32 The French Civil Code of 1804 was enacted on 21 March 1804 as the "Code civil des Français". The title was changed to the "Code Napoléon" in 1807, because of the Emperor's personal interest in the drafting of the Code while he was First Consul of the Republic. The original title was revived in 1816 after the fall of the Napoleonic Empire, but the Code was reinstated as the Code Napoléon in 1852 by decree of Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III), then President of the Republic. Since 4 September 1870, however, it has been referred to as the "Code civil". See YIANNOPOULOS, supra note 20 at 21.
33 YIANNOPOULOS, supra note 20 at 22.
34 Ibid. at 23. Another influence evident in the French Code of 1804 was that of J. DOMAT (1625-1696), who had undertaken to simplify the Roman law prevalent in France's southern provinces. See also B. DICKSON, Introduction to French Law, Pitman Publishing, London, 1994, 5, who notes that, apart from the abolition of feudal tenure, there was no real break with the ancien droit in the Code civil of 1804, especially because the four-man commission established to carry out the codification consisted of jurists steeped in the old law. Their main concern was "... to resolve differences between the various regions of France rather than to create a wholly new and coherent system."
38 On Scots law generally, see R. Evans-Jones (ed.), The Civil Law Tradition in Scotland, The Stair Society, supplementary series vol. 2, Edinburgh (1995); see also D.L. Carey Miller / R. Zimmermann, eds., The Civilian Tradition and Scots Law. Aberdeen Quincentenary Essays, Dunker & Humblot, Berlin (1997); E. ATTWOOLL, "Scotland: A Multi-dimensional Jigsaw", in ÖRÜCÜ et al., supra note 7 at 17-34.
39 E.A. MARSHALL, General Principles of Scots Law, 4 Ed., W. Green & Son, Ltd., Edinburgh (1982), 1-11.
40 See the Report of the Land Reform Policy Group of the Scottish Office, Identifying the Problems, Her Majesty's Stationery Office (February 1998), indicating, at para. 1.1, that approximately 60% of the agricultural land in rural Scotland is managed by landowners or by owner-occupiers; 30% is held by agricultural tenants and 10% by crofters. The abolition of the feudal system in Scotland is now proposed by the Land Reform Policy Group's report "Recommendations for Action", dated January 1999, and will no doubt be among the matters to be addressed by the new Scottish Parliament provided for by the Scotland Act, 1998 (U.K.) 1998, c. 46, following the election of that Parliament on 6 May 1999 and its assumption of legislative powers on 1 July 1999.
41 See EVANS-JONES, supra note 3 at 230-231, who notes that "receptions" of foreign law usually occur when a "weak" legal system confronts a "strong" one. In the case of Scotland, he argues that Roman law was appealing to Scots lawyers because it was written, whereas the customary law was unwritten; because it was systematic and better organised than customary law; and because it was the law in which the lawyers, as a social and professional elite, had received their training on the Continent.
42 Sir John DALRYMPLE, Viscount STAIR, Institutions of the Law of Scotland (1681).
43 Professor J. ERSKINE, Institute of the Law of Scotland (1773).
44 Professor G.J. BELL, Commentaries on the Law of Scotland and the Principles of Mercantile Jurisprudence (1804) and Principles of the Law of Scotland (1829).
45 Sir Thomas CRAIG, Jus Feudale (1655); Sir George MACKENZIE, Institutions of the Law of Scotland (1684); Andrew MCDOUALL, Lord BANKTON, Institute of the Laws of Scotland (1751-1753), Henry HOME, Lord KAMES, Principles of Equity (1760); and Baron David HUME, Commentaries on the Law of Scotland respecting Crimes (1797).
46 D.M. WALKER, Principles of Scottish Private Law, vol. I, 4 Ed., Clarendon Press, Oxford (1988), 26, citing Lord NORMAND, The Scottish Judicature and Legal Procedure (1941).
47 The Treaty of Union was brought into force in England by An Act for an Union of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland, 5 & 6 Anne, c. 8 (1706), and the Union, creating the "United Kingdom" came into force on 1 May 1707.
48 Art. XVIII of the Treaty of Union provided that the laws which concerned "publick Right, Policy and Civil Government" would be the same throughout the whole United Kingdom, "... but that no Alteration be made in Laws which concern private Right, except for evident Utility of the Subjects within Scotland." Art. XIX preserved the Scottish courts.
49 See A. RODGER, "Thinking about Scots Law" (1996), 1 Edinburgh L. Rev. 3, who notes a tendency from the later years of the nineteenth century for Scottish lawyers to see themselves as part of a large, world-wide family of English-speaking lawyers sharing a unique heritage of law rooted in English principles of freedom and justice. Scots law, with its civilian heritage, became unpopular at this time because it was associated with political dictatorship. See also EVANS-JONES, supra note 3 at 232.
50 WALKER, supra note 46, adds to this list "the principles of the general mercantile and maritime customs of Western Europe", also known as lex mercatoria and lex maritima. See TETLEY, supra note 24.
51 MARSHALL, supra note 39 at 12.
52 Cf. supra note 3.
53 See EVANS-JONES' discussion of two major decisions on Scots law which have resulted in a closer assimilation of Scots to English law: Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. of New York v Lothian Regional Council 1995 S.C. 151, 1995 S.L.T. 299 (Ct. of Session) (re. the requirement to prove error in order to recover for unjust enrichment) and Sharp v Thomson 1994 S.L.T. 1068 (Outer House); 1995 S.C.L.R. 683 (Inner House), 1997 S.L.T. 636 (H.L. (Sc.)) (re. the divisibility of the right of ownership of immoveables).
54 EVANS-JONES, supra note 3 at 241-242.
55 See this "narrow view" expounded in Tjollo Ateljees (Eins) Bpk v Small 1949 (1) SA 856 (ADiv.); Gerber v Watson 1955 (1) SA 158 (ADiv.); Du Plessis v Strauss 1988 (2) SA 105 (ADiv.). See also E. FAGAN, "Roman-Dutch Law in its South African Historical Context", in R. Zimmermann / D. Visser (eds.), supra note 7, 33 at 37-41.
56 See FAGAN, supra note 55 at 44-45. See also R. ZIMMERMANN, "Roman Law in a Mixed Legal System: The South African Experience", in R. Evans-Jones (ed.), supra note 38, 41 at 62 et seq.
57 Comentarius ad Pandectas. Other major Dutch authors relied on include GROTIUS, Inleiding tot de Hollandsche Rechtsgeleertheyd; VAN DER LINDEN, Koopmans Handboek and VAN LEEUWEN's Rooms-Hollands-Regt.
58 Among the best-known works on Roman-Dutch law published in South Africa are C.H. VAN ZYL, The Theory of the Judicial Practice of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope and of South Africa Generally (1893); Sir Andries MAASDORP, Institutes of Cape Law, vol. 1 (The Law of Persons, 1903), vol. II (The Law of Things, 1903), vol. III (the Law of Obligations, 1907), vol. IV (The Law of Actionable Wrongs, 1909); Ma. NATHAN, The Common Law of South Africa, 2 vol. (1904); J. WESSELS, History of the Roman-Dutch Law (1908); R.W. LEE, An Introduction to Roman-Dutch Law in South Africa (1915); G. WILLE, The Principles of South African Law (1937) (D. Hutchison, 8 Ed., 1991). More contemporary scholars include H.R. HAHLO and E. KAHN, The Union of South Africa: The Development of its Laws and Constitution (1960), as well as R. ZIMMERMANN, supra note 56.
59 FAGAN, supra note 55 at 46-57.
60 FAGAN, ibid. at 60-64.
61 ZIMMERMANN / VISSER, supra note 7 at 9-12.
62 See the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, sect. 169(3); ZIMMERMANN / VISSER, supra note 7 at 12-15.
63 Edit d'avril 1663, published in Edits, Ordonnances royaux, Déclarations et Arrêts du Conseil d'état du roy concernant le Canada, De la presse à vapeur de E.R. Fréchette, Québec,1854, vol. I, 37.
64 Edit de mai 1664, ibid., vol. I, 40.
65 See J.E.C. BRIERLEY / R.A. MACDONALD, Quebec Civil Law. An Introduction to Quebec Private Law, Emond Montgomery Publications Limited, Toronto (1993), paras. 6-12, 6-14.
66 Ibid., para. 13 at 15.
67 An Act for making more effectual Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North America, U.K. 14 Geo. III, c. 83, in force 1 May 1775. See generally H.M NEATBY, The Administration of Justice under the Quebec Act, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis (1937).
68 An Act to Repeal certain Parts of an Act passed in the fourteenth Year of His Majesty's Reign, intituled, An Act for making More effectual Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North America, and to make further provision for the Government of the said Province, U.K., 31 Geo. III, c. 31.
69 See BRIERLEY / MACDONALD, supra note 65, para. 14 at 17: "The result, in private law matters, was the alteration over the next years of Québec Civil law into the law of a bijural jurisdiction: portions of English law coexisted with the body of old French law reinstituted under the [Quebec] Act."
70 An Act to Re-unite the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and for the Government of Canada, U.K. 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35.
71 After 1854, all land was granted en franc aleu roturier, which was generally the French equivalent of English free and common soccage. Moreover, the creation by contract of obligations in the nature of feudal servitudes was prohibited.
72 See BRIERLEY / MACDONALD, supra note 65, paras. 17-19 at 20-22, and statutes cited there.
73 Ibid. para. 23 at 25, citing the preamble of the Act respecting the codification of the Laws of Lower Canada relative to civil matters and procedure, Stat. Prov. Canada, 1857, c. 43, being the statute under which a commission was constituted to prepare the Civil Code of Lower Canada and the Code of Civil Procedure.
74 The Civil Code of Lower Canada was enacted by An Act respecting the Civil Code of Lower Canada, Stat. Prov. Can. 1865, c. 41, and came into force on 1 August 1866.
75 The Code of Civil Procedure was enacted by An Act respecting the Code of Civil Procedure of Lower Canada, Stat. Prov. Can. 1866, c. 25.
76 1 July 1867 was the date of coming into force of the British North America Act, U.K. 30 & 31 Vict. c. 3 (1867), renamed the Constitution Act 1867 by the Canada Act, U.K. 1982, c. 11 and now cited in Canada as R.S.C. 1985, Appendix II, No. 5. Under the Act, the Dominion of Canada, comprising the Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Québec and Ontario, officially came into being as a federal State. Canada now consists of ten provinces and three territories, the most recent territory created being Nunavut, which became a territory separate from the Northwest Territories as of 1 April 1999.
77 BRIERLEY / MACDONALD, supra note 65, para 33 at 35.
78 BRIERLEY / MACDONALD, supra note 65, para. 27 at 30-31 and para. 120 at 147-149. Both language versions continued to be consulted even after the repeal of Art. 2714 by the Charter of the French Language, S.Q. 1977, c. 5, sect. 219. The two language versions of all enactments of the Québec National Assembly have equal authority under Canada's Constitution Act 1867, sect. 133, as reaffirmed in A.G. Quebec v Blaikie , 2 S.C.R. 1016 (Supr. Ct. of Can.).
79 An Act respecting the legal capacity of married women, S.Q. 1964, c. 66.
80 BRIERLEY / MACDONALD, supra note 65, para. 70 at 83.
81 Ibid., para. 75 at 88.
82 Civil Code Revision Office, Report on the Québec Civil Code, Editeur officiel du Québec, Québec, 1978.
83 BRIERLEY / MACDONALD, supra note 65, para. 78 at 93.
84 Act to establish a new Civil Code of Québec and to reform family law, S.Q. 1980, c. 39.
85 See BRIERLEY / MACDONALD, supra note 65, para. 82 at 96-97.
86 S.Q. 1991, c. 64, in force 1 January 1994.
87 See the Preliminary Disposition of the Civil Code of Québec 1994.
88 Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations, adopted at Rome on 18 June 1980 and in force on 1 April 1991.
89 Loi fédérale sur le droit international privé du 18 décembre 1987, 1988 Feuille fédérale (FF) I 5.
90 Modern scholarship, however, indicates that French private law was still applied extrajudicially by the French population of Louisiana after the cession to Spain, without resort to the official Spanish judicial system. See YIANNOPOULOS, supra note 20 at 29; H. BAADE, "Marriage Contracts in French and Spanish Louisiana: A Study in 'Notarial' Jurisprudence" (1978), 53 Tul. L. Rev. 3, 87-88.
91 YIANNOPOULOS, supra note 20 at 28-29. See also H. BAADE, "The Formalities of Private Real Estate Transactions in Spanish North America" (1978), 38 La. L. Rev. 656.
92 The Territory of Orleans had approximately the same boundaries as the present State of Louisiana. See YIANNOPOULOS, supra note 20 at 30.
93 A Digest of the Civil Laws now in force in the Territory of Orleans, with Alterations and Amendments Adapted to its Present Form of Government (1808).
94 See YIANNOPOULOS, supra note 20 at 31; TATE, "The Splendid Mystery of the Civil Code of Louisiana" (1974), 3 Louisiana Rev. 1; PASCAL, "Sources of the Digest of 1808: A Reply to Professor Batiza" (1972), 46 Tul. L. Rev. 603.
95 Much of the confusion resulted from the Louisiana Supreme Court's decision in Cottin v Cottin 5 Mart. (O.S.) 93 (La. 1817), holding in effect that the Digest of 1808 was really incomplete. See YIANNOPOULOS, supra note 20 at 32.
96 In force 20 June 1825. Together with the Civil Code, the committee also drafted a Code of Practice and a Commercial Code. The latter Code was rejected, however, on the ground that commercial law in the United States should be uniform.
97 About 60% of the 423 amendments and 1746 new provisions included in the 1825 Code were taken from French treatises (by POTHIER, DOMAT and TOULLIER, for example), and an additional 15% from the French Civil Code. See YIANNOPOULOS, supra note 20 at 33, n. 15.
98 See, for example, Flower v Griffith 6 Mart. (N.S.) 89 (La. 1827) and Reynolds v Swain 13 La. 193 (La. 1839), cited by YIANNOPOULOS, supra note 20 at 34-35, ns. 17 and 20 respectively.
99 La. Acts 1808, No. 29.
100 YIANNOPOULOS, supra note 20 at 34.
101 The 1870 Code was called the "Revised Civil Code of the State of Louisiana".
102 YIANNOPOULOS, supra note 20 at 35.
103 For a new Compiled Edition of the Civil Codes of Louisiana, see 16 and 17 West's L.S.A. Civil Code (Dainow, ed., 1972).
104 Among the parts of the Louisiana Civil Code revised piecemeal since 1976 are the provisions dealing with ownership, servitudes, building restrictions, boundaries, legitimate children, successions, obligations in general, contracts, matrimonial regimes, partnership, occupancy and possession, as well as prescription. See A.N. Yiannopoulos, ed., Louisiana Civil Code, 1986 Ed., West Publishing Co., St. Paul, Minn. (1986), xxvii-xxviii, and the different Louisiana statutes cited there.
105 La. Act No. 923 (1991), in force 1 January 1992.
106 A.O. SHERIF, "The Origins and Development of the Egyptian Judicial System", being Chapter 2 of K. Boyle / A.O. Sherif (eds.), Human Rights and Democracy. The Role of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, CIMEL Book Series No. 3, Kluwer Law International, London / The Hague / Boston (1996), 13-15.
109 Law No. 1925 of 1929, as amended by Law No. 100 of 1985.
110 Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, 4 May 1985, published in the Official Gazette of the Arab Republic of Egypt on 16 May 1985.
111 DAVID / BRIERLEY, supra note 4 at 25-26. See also R. DAVID, "Existe-t-il un droit occidental?" in Mélanges Hessel E. Yntema (Twentieth Century Comparative and Conflicts Law), A.W. Sijthoff, Leiden (1961), 56-64.
112 DAVID / BRIERLEY, supra note 4 at 20 - "The law's conceptual structure ...".
113 DAVID / BRIERLEY, supra note 4 at 94.
114 The House of Lords in a "Practice Statement (Judicial Precedent)  1 W.L.R. 1234,  3 All E.R. 77 (H.L.), proposed "while treating former decisions of this House as normally binding, to depart from a previous decision when it appears right to do so."
115 In practice, however, the Cour de cassation is feared by judges of lower courts.
116 Art. 5 C.C. (France) states that judges are forbidden to enunciate general principles in the cases which come before them ("Il est défendu aux juges de prononcer par voie de disposition générale et réglementaire sur les causes qui leur sont soumises"). Such a provision does not appear in the Québec Civil Codes of 1866 or 1994 or the Louisiana Civil Codes, but it epitomises the civil law as it was said to be.
117 See W. TETLEY, Marine Cargo Claims, 3 Ed., Les Editions Yvon Blais, Montreal (1988), 45-47.
118 See L.-P. PIGEON, Rédaction et interprétation des lois, Québec, 3 Ed., Gouvernement du Québec (1986), 19. Montesquieu, in his celebrated De l'Esprit des Lois (Book XXIX, Ch. 16), gives as his first and foremost admonishment on composing laws that: "The style ought to be concise." (The Spirit of Laws, A compendium of the First English Edition with an Introduction by D.W. CARRITHERS, University of California Press, Berkeley (1997), 376).
119 PORTALIS, one of the drafters of the Code Napoléon, declared: "L'office de la loi est de fixer, par de grandes vues, les maximes générales du droit; d'établir des principes féconds en conséquences, et non de descendre dans le détail des questions qui peuvent naître sur chaque matière." See Sir O. Khan-Freund / C. Lévy / B. Rudden (eds.), A Source-book on French Law, 3 Ed. rev., Clarendon Press, Oxford (1990), 233 et seq. See also B. DICKSON, Introduction to French Law, Pitman Publishing, London (1994), 10-11: "The generally worded provisions of the Code civil and the consequent freedom given to judges to interpret and apply those provisions have made possible the development of new rules and have without doubt been responsible for the Code's ability to come to terms with the social, technical and economic developments since Napoleon's day."
120 See generally G.C. THORNTON, Legislative Drafting, 2 Ed., Butterworths, London (1979), 53 et seq.; Bulmer v Bollinger,  2 All E.R. 1226 at 1237 (C.A. per Lord Denning M.R.).
121 United Nations Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea, adopted at Hamburg, 31 March 1978, and in force 1 November 1992, commonly known as the "Hamburg Rules". For the official English text of the Hamburg Rules, see TETLEY, supra note 117, Appendix "A" at 1143-1165; see also Unif. L. Rev. 1978-I, 134.
122 Art. 5(1) of the Hamburg Rules reads "[t]he carrier is liable for loss resulting from loss or damage to the goods, as well as from delay in delivery, if the occurrence which caused the loss, damage or delay took place while the goods were in his charge as defined in Art. 4, unless the carrier proves that he, his servants or agents took all measures that could reasonably be required to avoid the occurrence and its consequences."
123 International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to Bills of Lading, adopted at Brussels, 25 August 1924, commonly known as the "Hague Rules". For the official French text of the Hague Rules, see W. TETLEY, supra note 117, Appendix "A", at 1111-1120, with an English translation, ibid. at 1120-1129; see also Unification du droit / Unification of Law 1948, 488.
124 Art. 4(2) reads "[n]either the carrier nor the ship shall be responsible for loss or damage arising or resulting from: (a) ... (b) ... (q). Any other cause arising without the actual fault ...".
125 See W. TETLEY, supra note 117 at 47-50.
126 H. MAZEAUD, Leçons de Droit Civil (François Chabas, ed.), 11 Ed., Paris, Montchrestien (1996), t. 1, vol. 1, para. 110 at 172.
127 See, for example, the Civil Code of Panama, Art. 9, which provides: "When the sense of a rule of law is clear its literal text cannot be disregarded with the pretext to consult its spirit. However, for the interpretation of an obscure expression of Law, the interpreter may refer to the intent or spirit that can be consulted through the Law or its history clearly manifested within the Law or in the genuine history of its creation." This provision was cited in Phoenix Marine Inc. v China Ocean Shipping Co.,  1 Lloyd's Rep. 682 at 686 (per Moore-Bick J.).
128 Sir Courtney ILBERT, Legislative Methods and Forms, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1901), 250-251.
129 However, ILBERT, ibid., 250, sets some presumptions that the legislature did not intend to alter the rules or principles of the common law beyond what is expressly declared, or to oust or limit the jurisdiction of the superior courts.
130 Rousseau and Hobbes' theories are compared in Y. GUCHET, La pensée politique, Paris, Armand Colin (1992), 56-60.
131 DAVID / BRIERLEY, supra note 4, para. 74 at 101.
132 Law no. 66-420 of 18 June 1966 concerning contracts of charterparty and of carriage by sea (J.O. 24 June 1966, 5206); Law no. 67-5 of 3 January 1967 concerning the status of ships and other seagoing vessels (J.O. 4 January 1967, 106); Law no. 67-522 of 3 July 1967 concerning marine insurance (J.O. 4 July 1967, 6648, later codified as Book 1, Title VII of the Code des assurances by Decree no. 76-666 of 16 July 1976 - J.O. 21 July 1976, 4341); Law no. 67-545 of 7 July 1967 concerning events at sea (J.O. 9 July 1967, 6867); and Law no. 69-8 of 3 January 1969 concerning shipowning and maritime sales (J.O. 5 January 1969, 200).
133 Ibid., para. 69 at 94 and para. 320 at 359. In the latter passage, they refer to A.P. SERENI, "The Code and the Case Law", in B. Schwarz (ed.), The Code Napoléon and the Common Law World, New York University Press, New York, 1956, 61: "The civil law règle juridique may appear at times to an Anglo-American lawyer to be nothing more than an abstract precept or at most a general directive rather than an actual legal provision."
134 DAVID / BRIERLEY, supra note 4, para. 320 at 358, 359.
135 Ibid., para. 322 at 360-361.
137 Ibid., para. 325 at 364-365.
138 Ibid., para. 60 at 81.
139 The Judicature Acts (1873), 36 & 37 Vict., c. 66; (1875), 38 & 39 Vict., c. 77 enabled Common Law and Equity to be administered by the same Courts.
140 See W.W. BUCKLAND / A.D. MCNAIR, Roman Law and Common Law: A Comparison in Outline (F.H. Lawson, ed.), 2 Ed. rev., Cambridge, Cambridge U.P. (1952), 399.
141 Art. 20 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Québec), S.Q. 1965, c. 80, reads "[w]henever this Code contains no provision for exercising any right, any proceeding may be adopted which is not inconsistent with this Code or with some other provision of law."
142  A.C. 221,  2 Lloyd's Rep. 325, 1980 AMC 1221 (P.C.).
143  S.C.R. 1248,  1 Lloyd's Rep. 174; 1973 AMC 176 (Supr. Ct. of Can.).

References: Art. 140
 Art. 1493
 Art. 2714
 Art. 5
 Art. 5
 Art. 4
 Art. 4
 Art. 9
 Art. 20