WI: England chooses Civil Law

kernals12

Banned
The English Common Law is one of the most enduring residuals of Britain's now defunct empire, being used in virtually all of its former colonies. So how would life be different in Britain, the US, Canada, Australia etc. if they had chosen Civil Law like in Continental Europe?

To establish a specific POD:
Let's have it occur in 1660 with the restoration of the Monarchy.
 
Last edited:
You need a specific PoD to make any sense of this question.

Britain did not at any point in history make a clear decision to choose common law over civil law. Common law simply evolved within their territory based on trying to create "common" decisions within different parts of England. (And then there's the question of overlap with Scottish law.)

So the question is what was the change? Was it a wholesale change in law, say with a certain Corsican gentleman conquering England (Scotland is optional here) and imposing a Code Napoleon? Was it a British monarch deciding to import parts of civil law for some reason? Who, and when? With a particular scenario we can have a more meaningful discussion.
 

kernals12

Banned
You need a specific PoD to make any sense of this question.

Britain did not at any point in history make a clear decision to choose common law over civil law. Common law simply evolved within their territory based on trying to create "common" decisions within different parts of England. (And then there's the question of overlap with Scottish law.)

So the question is what was the change? Was it a wholesale change in law, say with a certain Corsican gentleman conquering England (Scotland is optional here) and imposing a Code Napoleon? Was it a British monarch deciding to import parts of civil law for some reason? Who, and when? With a particular scenario we can have a more meaningful discussion.
Okay, I went with 1660 (restoration of monarchy)
 
Perhaps make the POD 1653. The Fifth Monarchy Men succeed in replacing Common Law with Mosaic Law. Since the legal system would then need to be overhauled again at the Restoration, that would be a window for the implementation of Civil Law.
 

Md139115

Banned
Actually, the best possible POD would be James VI & I trying to bring it south with him. OTL, the English gentry tried to convince him to go the opposite direction but the Scots wouldn't budge.
 
I'm with Md on this, the obvious example is for some amazing cross border criminal case that gets resolved in Scotland but not in England and it's not resolved because of it being Common Law. Something super expensive and embarrassing for the government.

The second is Napoleon goes further. If there's a revolution in the UK to coincide with Napoleon then the entire world would be pretty standardised.
 
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