civil law A law established by following earlier judicial decisions.

synonyms: case law, precedent.

Roget 124: oldness etc. adj.^†; age, antiquity; cobwebs of antiquity.    maturity; decline, decay; senility etc. 128.    seniority, eldership, primogeniture.    archaism etc. (the past) 122; thing of the past, relic of the past; megatherium^†; Sanskrit.    tradition, prescription, custom, immemorial usage, common law.    ... show more

Roget 963: legality; legitimacy, legitimateness.    legislature; law, code, corpus juris [Lat.], constitution, pandect^†, charter, enactment, statute, rule; canon etc. (precept) 697; ordinance, institution, regulation; bylaw, byelaw; decree etc. (order) 741; ordonnance^†; standing order; plebiscite etc. (choice) 609.    legal process; form, formula, formality; rite, arm of the law; habeas corpus; fieri facias [Lat.].    [Science of law] jurisprudence, nomology^†; legislation, codification.    equity, common law; lex [Lat.], lex nonscripta [Lat.]; law of nations, droit des gens [Fr.], international law, jus gentium [Lat.]; jus civile [Lat.]; civil law, canon law, crown law, criminal law, statute law, ecclesiastical law, administrative law; lex mercatoria [Lat.].    constitutionalism, constitutionality; justice etc. 922.    [institution for deciding questions of law] court, tribunal etc. 966.    [person who presides at a court or tribunal] judge etc. 967.    [specialist in questions of law] lawyer, attorney, legal counsel etc. 968.    ... show more

Polish: precedens

A system of jurisprudence based on judicial precedents rather than statutory laws:
— Common law originated in the unwritten laws of England and was later applied in the United States.

synonyms: case law, precedent.