I've come across these terms from time to time while researching, and while i understand that the terms are mostly used to denote the origins of legal practices, what I don't understand is what characterizes/differentiates these particular legal systems.
For example, i have skimmed articles related to Welsh laws and they seem extremely similar to things I've seen in germanic law codes.
I guess what im asking is if theres anything substantive about these categories or if they're basically meaningless
Roman Law of course initially referred to the laws of the Roman people. Justice is, with the exception of certain crimes like treason and sacrilege, a largely private affair, with no real public prosecution existing. Guilt or innocence is decided by a single judge chosen from a limited pool by a Praetor, who also establishes a specific formula via which to pass sentence and thus exercises great control over the process. Inheritance is generally agnatic-cognatic, i.e. intestate succession prefers to follow the male line but can follow the female if there is no male-line heir, and men and women both have inheritance rights (though the rights of women are limited in some cases). However, in the present day, it is often used as a synonym for
civil law. Civil law is a legal system based heavily on law codes, often initially based on Roman codes such as the
Corpus Iuris Civilis, wherein the power of the judge to interpret the law and the strength of legal precedent are limited in favor of authoritative codes and interpretations promulgated by the legislative or executive. Often, though not always, countries using a civil/Roman law system will also use a system of
Inquisitorial Justice, wherein the judge's primary job is to determine the facts of the case, rather than serve as the arbiter between prosecution/plaintiff and defense.
Germanic Law refers to various customary laws of the Germanic peoples. In contrast to Roman Law, where compensation is generally determined on a case-by-case basis, Germanic Law often relies on the
weregild--the 'man-price'--to determine compensation for most crimes, with a person's weregild based on their status and different crimes requiring a different portion of the weregild in compensation. Decisions of guilt and innocence are generally made by juries. Inheritance tends to be absolutely agnatic, i.e. inheritance through the female line is disallowed, and the inheritance rights of women are limited. Furthermore, titles and property tends to be split among heirs, whilst in Roman law a testator has the right to name a sole heir. A good example of 'classical' Germanic Law is the Salic Law, which demonstrates most of these features. Today, the only surviving Germanic Law tradition is the English
Common Law and its descendants in former English colonies, though it has borrowed heavily from Roman and other sources. In contrast to Roman/Civil law systems, however, the Common Law judge retains a high degree of authority to interpret the law and create precedent, which may or may not be binding. Common Law systems almost always use
adversarial justice for all but the most minor offenses, where the judge arbites between prosecution/plaintiff and defense but plays a limited or nonexistent role in investigating the truth of the matter.
Celtic Law refers to the customary laws of the Celtic-speaking peoples. The best documented Celtic Law codes are the Brehon Laws of early Ireland, early Welsh law, and similar. Brehon law shows concern for status and formally defines a web of clientage superficially similar to the Roman one. The law is interpreted, and questions of guilt or innocence decided, by the King (
Ruire), who interestingly has little authority to promulgate law. Compensation for injury is, interestingly enough, determined by a physician. Women were, at least initially, given a great degree of legal equality relative to other law codes of the period. However, inheritance was still determined agnatically, though it seems that a man could inherit through certain cognate ties. Inheritance was generally divided amongst heirs, with male heirs receiving a division of land and female heirs receiving some movables. Unlike with the Germanic and Roman systems, no countries today use a Celtic Law system.
