The Civil Justice System And The Civil Law System

If I was wrongfully accused of a crime, I believe that the Civil Law system would allow better opportunities for me to be properly acquitted. Today, there are two major social justice systems: Common Law system and Civil Law system. Although both systems have a desire to ultimately restore peace, serve justice, and punish offenders, the Civil Law system is more advantageous and equitable for its followers.

The Common Law system is primarily used in English-speaking countries and societies. Originally, credited to be primarily established in England it has had great influence on America through its constitution. The United States’ constitution is a form of the Common Law system because it supports laws created by the legislature branch, supports

The civil law system is best described and understood as inquisitorial. The basis of law for this system comes from a code of statue and is to be followed strictly. Additionally, the use of precedent in a Civil Law system is rendered useless because it is not binding or uniformed to all cases. As a result, the Civil Law system depends more on the use, findings, and explanations of scholars. Furthermore, unlike an adversarial system, an inquisitorial system takes the power away from the lawyers to ask questions and present evidence. Instead, this power is given to the judges. The judges are understood as the “inquisitor” and are not seen as important highly-ranked officials. Additionally, the Civil Law system is less likely to use a jury in its civil actions and judges are apart of the jury; therefore, they do not act like a third party

For example, in a Common Law system lawyers are focused on getting their clients or the accused offenders a plea bargaining deal. Instead, of finding the truth and making sure the right person is being sent to prison, the lawyers in the common law system is more focused on winning the case. Therefore, if a person is unable to afford a lawyer who is exceptional at his or her job than, the accused offender is more likely to take the plea bargain and go to prison for an unfair amount of time or reason (e.g. false accusations). Moreover, this is problematic because the system is not really finding out who committed the crime but is trying to find out who is the guiltiest. Also, the use of plea bargaining deals allows the state to shift their responsibility of finding accused offenders “guilty without a reason of doubt” because the defendant is admitting wrong by accepting the deal. Another reason I would not choose the Common Law system is due to the role of the judges. Judges in this system have too much power which in my opinion defy the separations of powers. For example, judges are able to interpret law how they choose too which allows for space for corruption. Even though judges are suppose to be impartial, naturally, people have biases and act upon them. Therefore, it is