LibGuides: International & Foreign Law Legal Research: Foreign Law

Common Law v. Civil Law

When researching foreign law, it is important to note if you are in a common law or civil law jurisdiction.

In the United States, we practice common law. In common law jurisdictions, case law or judicial precedent is important. In civil law jurisdictions, legislative enactments are binding on everyone and case law is binding only on the parties to the dispute.

Comparison of Civil Law and Common Law legal systems

To view a map roughly indicating common law and civil law jurisdictions, see: JuriGlobe

Foreign Law Guide
Acclaimed by librarians, academics, and researchers alike, the Foreign Law Guide (FLG) is an essential database offering relevant information on sources of foreign law, including complete bibliographic citations to legislation, the existence of English translations and selected references to secondary sources in one virtual destination. Broad in content and global in scope, the FLG is an indispensable resource for comparative law research and a fundamental tool for developing a foreign and comparative law collection. Approximately 190 jurisdictions are systemically covered and updated by a global team of experts.