What are the differences between Chinese and western legal traditions?

At present, the legal systems adopted by countries all over the world can be basically divided into two categories: continental law system and common law system. Chinese mainland adopts the civil law system. Continental law system, also known as Roman law system, civil law system, code system or Roman Germanic law system, is a legal system established by inheriting the tradition of ancient Roman law and imitating the style of French Civil Code and German Civil Code. The laws of France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and many countries in Latin America and Asia belong to the civil law system. Hong Kong and Commonwealth countries adopt common law system, which is also called English law system, common law system or case law system. The main differences between the two legal systems are:

▲ First, the source of law is different. Continental law system is a statutory law system, and its laws exist in the form of statutory law. Its legal sources include various normative legal documents formulated by the legislature, various administrative regulations promulgated by the administrative organs and international treaties to which this vehicle is a party, but it does not include judicial precedents. The legal sources of Anglo-American legal system include both statute law and precedent, and the case law constituted by precedent occupies a very important position in the whole legal system.

▲ Second, the legal structure is different. The continental law system inherits the tradition of ancient Roman law and is used to making uniform and systematic provisions on the dietary norms of a legal department in the form of a code, which constitutes the backbone of the legal system structure. The Anglo-American legal system seldom formulates codes, and is used to making special provisions on a certain kind of problems in the form of a single law. Therefore, its legal system is mainly composed of one-way law and case law.

▲ Third, judges have different powers. The civil law system emphasizes that judges can only use the provisions of the statute law to try cases, and the judge's interpretation of the statute law is also strictly limited by the statute law itself, so judges can only apply the law but not create the law. Judges in the Anglo-American legal system can refer to both written laws and existing cases, and they can also create new cases by using the skills of legal interpretation and legal reasoning under certain conditions, so that judges can not only apply the law, but also create laws within a certain range.

▲ Fourth, the proceedings are different. The procedure of civil law system is centered on the judge, which highlights the function of the judge and has the characteristics of interrogation procedure. In addition, most judges and jurors form a court to hear cases. The litigation procedure in the common law system focuses on the plaintiff, the defendant, their defenders and agents, and the judge is only the "arbitrator" of the dispute between the two parties and cannot participate in the dispute. At the same time, there is a jury system in this adversarial (also called defense) procedure. The jury is mainly responsible for making factual conclusions and basic legal conclusions (such as guilt or innocence), and the judge is responsible for making specific legal conclusions, that is, judgments.

In addition, there are many differences between the two legal systems in legal classification, legal terminology, legal education, judicial personnel recruitment and judicial system.