French legal system

In academic terms, French law can be divided into two main categories: private law ("droit privé") and public law ("droit public"). This differs from the traditional common law conception in which the main distinction is between Criminal law and Civil Law.

Private law governs relationships between individuals. It includes, in particular:

Public law defines the structure and the workings of the government as well as relationships between the state and individuals. It includes, in particular:

Together, these two distinctions form the backbone of legal studies in France, such that it has become a classical distinction

The legal system especially underwent changes after the French revolution. Also, during the colonial era some Muslim-dominated societies began to blend the sharia legal system with the French legal system as represented in local law.

The announcement in November 2005 by the European Commission that powers recognised in a recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling underlay its intention to create a dozen or so European Union (EU) criminal offences suggests that one should also now consider EU law ("", sometimes referred to, less accurately, as "") as a new and distinct area of law in France (akin to the federal laws that apply across States of the US, on top of their own State law), and not simply a group of rules which influence the content of France's civil, criminal, administrative and constitutional law.

As mentioned, the term civil law in France refers to private law, and should be distinguished from the group of legal systems descended from Roman Law known as civil law, as opposed to common law. The main body of statutes and laws governing civil law and procedure are set out in the Civil Code of France. Other private law statutes are also located in other codes such as commercial code in the Code of Commerce, or copyright law in the Intellectual Property Code.

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