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Law, Culture and Civil Codification in a Mixed Legal System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2014

Nir Kedar
Nir Kedar
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900,Israel, email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Comparatists usually describe mixed legal systems as being built upon dual foundations of Romano-Germanic civil law and Anglo-American common law. This widely accepted description examines mixed systems from a formal internally legal perspective. My paper offers a new yardstick for investigating mixed systems by posing an external perspective for examining the complex interplay between law and culture in a mixed jurisdiction. The case study is the codification of private law in the mixed system of Israel. A civil code does not reflect the inner logic or history of the Israeli legal system, as this system has been mostly shaped along Anglo-Saxon lines which generally discourage the enactment of codes. But seen from a cultural perspective, a civil code is not alien to Israeli society because its perception as a symbol of legal independence and modernization is inherent in the European political culture that most Israelis are familiar with. The story of civil codification in Israel demonstrates that beyond the common-law-civil-law “mixedness” in Israeli law, the Israeli legal system is also mixed in a more profound sense: while the country's law is primarily (though not exclusively) influenced by the Anglo-Saxon tradition, its political culture is mainly inspired by ideas embedded in continental Europe which were imported to Israel by Jewish immigrants.

Résumé

Les comparativistes décrivent généralement les juridictions mixtes comme ayant été construites sur la double fondation du droit civil romano-germanique et de la common law anglo-américaine. Cette description largement acceptée examine les juridictions mixtes à partir d'une perspective juridique formelle interne. Mon étude propose un nouveau prisme analytique pour examiner les juridictions mixtes: une perspective qui prend en considération l'interaction complexe entre le droit et la culture dans une juridiction mixte. L'étude de cas est la codification du droit privé dans la juridiction mixte qu'est Israël. Un code civil ne reflète pas la logique interne ou l'histoire du système juridique israélien, étant donné que celui-ci a été façonné principalement sur des idées anglo-saxonnes qui découragent généralement les codifications. Du point de vue culturel, par contre, le principe de la codification n'est pas entièrement étranger à la société israélienne, vu qu'un code civil est perçu comme un symbole d'indépendance juridique et de modernisation ancré dans la culture politique européenne qui est si bien connue par la plupart des Israéliens. L'histoire de la codification en Israël illustre qu'au-delà du mélange du droit civil et de la common law en droit israélien, le système juridique israélien est également mixte dans le sens, qu'il contient un mélange entre le droit qui est principalement (bien que non exclusivement) influencé par la tradition anglo-saxonne, et la culture politique et juridique qui est surtout inspirée des idées propres à l'Europe continental et qui ont été importées en Israël par les immigrants juifs.

Type
Dossier: The Law Commission of Canada/La Commission du Droit du Canada
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , August 2007 , pp. 177 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association 2007

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References

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3 Palmer, supra note 1 at 7.

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25 For the influence of the French code on legislation and legal thinking throughout the world, see Zweigart & Kötz, supra note 4 at 118-198. For the influence of the German civil code, see ibid. at 154-156, and for that of the Swiss civil code, see ibid. at 178-179.

26 Zweigart & Kötz, supra note 4 at 113-115; For codification in Latin America, see also Murillo, supra note 21 at 170-172; Matus-Valencia, J.G., “The Centenary of the Chilean Civil Code” (1958) 7 Am. J. Comp. L. 71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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28 See Brierley, E.C., “The Renewal of Québec's Distinct Legal Culture: The New Civil Code of Québec” (1992) 42 U. Toronto L.J. 484CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Legrand, P., “Codification and the Politics of Exclusion: A Challenge for Comparativists” (1997–1998) 31 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 799 at 801–803Google Scholar (discusses the fact that Quebec's civil code has no official English version).

29 The civil code of Vietnam was enacted in 1996; those of Uzbekistan, Byelorussia, Georgia and Latvia in 1997; the Armenian civil code in 1998; the Lithuanian and Estonian codes in 2001 (the Estonian code was enacted in separate chapters like the Russian version); the Moldavian, Czech and Mongolian civil codes in 2002; the Slovakian in 2003; and that of Ukraine in 2004.

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35 Two prominent examples are Nobushige Hozumi the author of the 1898 Japanese civil code, and Abdel-Razek Al-Sanhuri, the drafter of the Egyptian civil code (that was later adopted by many other Arab countries). See Aoki, H., “Nobushige Hozumi: A Skillful Transplanter of Western Legal Thought into Japanese Soil” in Riles, A., ed., Rethinking the Masters of Comparative Law (Oxford: Hart, 2001) 129Google Scholar; A. Shalakany, “Sanhuri, and the Historical Origins of Comparative Law in the Arab World” in ibid, at 152; Hill, E., al-Sanhuri and Islamic Law (Cairo: American University of Cairo Press, 1987)Google Scholar.

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41 Gulak, A., “Work Plan for the Society of Hebrew Law, Authored by Asher Gulak, at the Invitation of the Committee of the Society of Hebrew Law in Jerusalem” (1927) 2 Jewish Law 195 at 203–204 (Hebrew)Google Scholar. And see also P. Daykan (Dikstein), History of the Hebrew Law of Arbitration (1924) at 73, cited by Radzyner, “Dilemma” ibid. at 1 (Hebrew); Nehorai, S. (Samuel Eisenstadt) “After the Committee” (1928) 3 Hamishpat 87 at 90 (Hebrew)Google Scholar.

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43 M. Silberg, “The Law in the Hebrew State” series of articles published in the Ha'aretz newspaper between 17th February 1938 and 13th April 1938. Also published in work, Silberg's, In Inner Harmony, in Tarlo, Z. & Hovav, M., eds. (Jerusalem: Magnes 1981) at 180–201Google Scholar (Hebrew) [Silberg, Harmony]. See also Silberg, M., “On the Question of the Preparation of a Hebrew Code” (1947) 4 Hapraklit 262 (Hebrew)Google Scholar.

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51 See Barak, “Tradition” supra note 6; Friedman, “Interpretation”, ibid.