法律翻译知识2.大陆法系
2，Civil-law System
大陆法系主要是建立在制定法（司法机关制定的法案)基础之上的。大多数大陆法国家将它们的制定法编纂成一部法律，或者将它们的制定法更精细地进行编纂成法典。
Civil-law systems are based mainly on statutes. Themajority of civil-law countries have assembled their statures into one or morecarefully organized collections called codes.
大多数现代法典可以追溯到罗马皇帝优士丁尼一世在公元6世纪时组织人员编纂的那部著名法典。优士丁尼的法典更新和总结了整个罗马法，它被称为《优士丁尼民法大全》，即《民法大全》。由此原因，基于罗马的制定法体系或法典法体系的法律体系就被称为大陆法体系。术语“civil law”的上述用法不要和该术语作为“私法”的替代性术语的用法相混淆。大陆法法系包括私法和公法。
Most modern law codes can be traced back to the famouscode that was commissioned by the Roman Emperor Justinian I in the A.D. 500’s.Justinian’s code updated and summarized the whole of Roman law, which wascalled the Corpus Juris Civilis, meaning Body of Civil Law. For thisreason, legal systems that are based on the Roman system of stature and codelaw are known as civil-law systems. This use of the term civil law should notbe confused with its use as an alternate term for private law. Civil-lawsystems include both private law and public law.
优士丁尼组织编纂的这部不朽的《国法大全》依然影响着每一个大陆法国家的法律演化。法国的大学在1689年之前一直没有教授“普通法”，由此可见大陆法在法国法律体系中扎根基之深。大陆法影响 (法国的)法律规则、法律思想、法律分类、法律先例和技术的处理，以及法院体系的架构。
The monumental Corpus Juris Civiliscommissioned by Justinian still influences the evolution of law in virtuallyevery civil-law country. The roots of civil law are so deeply imbedded inFrench jurisprudence that French universities did not even teach common lawuntil 1689. It affects legal rules, legal thought, legal classifications, thetreatment of legal precedents and techniques, and the organization of courtsystems.
大陆法的一个有趣方面是，它比普通法更容易地从一个地方传播到另一个地方。人们有时会说，大陆法有两个分支:法国和德国。事实证明，这两个国家的民法典具有很强的适应性。例如，拿破仑一世于1804年颁布的《法国民法典》（或者《拿破仑法典》）是比利时、荷兰、卢森堡等国以及德国、 瑞士和意大利等国部分地区的法律的基础。西班牙、罗马尼亚以及非洲和南美洲的部分地区也借鉴《法国民法典》 并作为制定当地民法典的参考。北美的路易斯安那州和加拿大的魁北克省的民法也都源于《法国民法典》。《德国民法典》于1900年颁布，它源于神圣罗马帝国，深受罗马民法的影响。尽管 《德国民法典》比《法国民法典》影响到的区域要少，但前者在诸如泰国、中国、日本、东欧和希腊等广大区域内的影响是非常重要的.
One interesting aspect of civil law is that ittransfer from place to place more easily than common law. It is sometimes saidthat there are two branches of civil law: French and German. The civil codes ofboth countries have proven particularly adaptable. For example, the FrenchCivil Code(or Napoleonic Code), first promulgated by Napoleon I in 1804, isthe basis of the laws of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and parts ofGermany, Switzerland, and Italy, Spain,Romania, and parts of Africa and SouthAmerica also borrowed the Code Civil as a guide for local civil codes. In NorthAmerica, for example, the civil laws of both the state of Louisiana, and theCanadian province of Quebec are rooted in the Code Civil. Inherited from theHoly Roman Empire, the German Civil Code, which was enacted in 1900,also reveals the strong influence of Roman civil law. Although its reach hasbeen much narrower than that of the French Code Civil, it has been important insuch far-reaching sites as Thailand, China,Japan,Eastern Europe, and Greece.
