In common law countries, the term can mean law as between citizens and law which regulates issues between citizens or between people as they (the judiciary).
The most common use of this term to refer to the legal system of civil law. Many countries around the world with comprehensive legal system known as the civil law area, largely inspired by Roman law and the primary feature of which is that laws are written into a collection, codified, and not (as in common law) determined by judges.
Conceptually, it is the group of legal ideas and systems ultimately derived from the Code of Justinian, but heavily overlaid by Germanic, ecclesiastical, feudal, and local practices, as well as doctrinal strains such as natural law, codification, and legislative positivism.
Materially, civil law proceeds from abstractions, formulates general principles, and distinguishes substantive rules from procedural rules. It holds legislation as the primary source of law, and the court system is usually inquisitorial, unbound by precedent, and composed of specially trained judicial officers with a limited ability to interpret law.
