| ▲ | lolinder 11 hours ago | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
For anyone curious to dig into this more, the terms to read up on are "common law" [0] vs "civil law" [1]. Common law is basically just the US, UK, AU, and NZ. Outside the anglosphere it's mostly civil law. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_law_(legal_system) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | tptacek 8 hours ago | parent [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Not to wave anybody off an interesting rabbit hole, but is that the germane difference here? My understanding: common law features a relatively smaller "source of truth" of written law, and relatively more expansive and variably-binding jurisprudence, where judge decisions set precedent and shape the law. Civil law writes almost everything down ahead of time. I guess civil law gives you less room to explore ideas like "living" statutes and laws that gain and change meaning over time; if there was such a change, you'd write it down? Regardless: whether you're a textualist or realist, in the US you're still operating in a common law system. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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