Western law has two great systems, the civil law and the common
law. The system of civil law comprises a number of national or local laws, each
of which has, at its core, a civil code based largely on Roman law. The common
law is not contained in a code but is continually distilled from the stream
of a large number of cases decided by the courts of law, at first exclusively in
England but later in other parts of the Commonwealth and the USA. This judge made
law is again divided into two parts, which bear the technical names of
‘common law’ and ‘equity’, both of which are from time to time modified by
local or national legislation.
Even centuries of Roman rule over Britain could not significantly
change or give flavour to Britain or its people. The Roman occupation left
“little permanent mark on the civilization and character of the island.”