Civil Law Family

The Romano-Germanic tradition: systems built on comprehensive written codes descended from Roman law and refined through nineteenth century European codification, where a judge applies a code rather than building the law case by case. Belongs here: Civil Law as the general field, the French and German systems whose codes anchor the tradition, Nordic Law's own codified variant, and Japanese Law, whose 1896 Civil Code was modeled directly on the German Civil Code even though Japan's legal culture carries strong customary influence of its own. Does not belong here: a system that blends civil codification with another tradition closely enough that neither predominates, such as Scots Law or South African Law, grouped under mixed legal systems instead.