The judicial decisions that have interpreted the law have, in fact, been written and have always been accessible. From the earliest times -- Magna Carta is a good example -- there has been "legislation," what in civil law systems would be called "enacted law." In the United States, this includes constitutions (both federal and state) as well as enactments by Congress and state legislatures.
In addition, at both the federal and state levels, much law has in fact been codified. At the federal level, for example, there is an internal revenue code. State legislatures have adopted uniform codes in such areas as penal and commercial law. There are also uniform rules of civil and criminal procedure which, although typically adopted by the highest courts of the federal and state systems, are ultimately ratified by the legislatures. Still, it must be noted that many statutes and rules simply codify the results reached by common or "case" law. Judicial decisions interpreting constitutions and legislative enactments also become sources of the law themselves, so in the end the basic perception that the American system is one of judge-made law remains valid.
At the same time, not all law in civil law countries is codified in the sense that it is organized into a comprehensive organic, whole statement of the law on a given subject. Sometimes individual statutes are enacted to deal with specific issues without being codified. These simply exist alongside the more comprehensive civil or penal codes of the system. And while decisions of the higher courts in a civil law jurisdiction may not have the binding force of law in succeeding cases (as they do in a common law system), the fact is that in many civil law countries lower courts tend to follow the decisions of higher courts in the system because of their persuasive argumentation. Nevertheless, a judge in the civil law system is not legally bound by the previous decision of a higher court in an identical or similar case and is quite free to ignore the decision altogether.
The judicial decisions that have interpreted the law have, in fact, been written and have always been accessible. From the earliest times -- Magna Carta is a good example -- there has been "legislation," what in civil law systems would be called "enacted law." In the United States, this includes constitutions (both federal and state) as well as enactments by Congress and state legislatures. In addition, at both the federal and state levels, much law has in fact been codified. At the federal level, for example, there is an internal revenue code. State legislatures have adopted uniform codes in such areas as penal and commercial law. There are also uniform rules of civil and criminal procedure which, although typically adopted by the highest courts of the federal and state systems, are ultimately ratified by the legislatures. Still, it must be noted that many statutes and rules simply codify the results reached by common or "case" law. Judicial decisions interpreting constitutions and legislative enactments also become sources of the law themselves, so in the end the basic perception that the American system is one of judge-made law remains valid. At the same time, not all law in civil law countries is codified in the sense that it is organized into a comprehensive organic, whole statement of the law on a given subject. Sometimes individual statutes are enacted to deal with specific issues without being codified. These simply exist alongside the more comprehensive civil or penal codes of the system. And while decisions of the higher courts in a civil law jurisdiction may not have the binding force of law in succeeding cases (as they do in a common law system), the fact is that in many civil law countries lower courts tend to follow the decisions of higher courts in the system because of their persuasive argumentation. Nevertheless, a judge in the civil law system is not legally bound by the previous decision of a higher court in an identical or similar case and is quite free to ignore the decision altogether.
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