Civil law, or civil law - a set of legal norms governing property and personal non-property relations in society. The peculiarity of civil legal relations is that state interference in them is minimal.
General characteristics of civil law
Civilism is considered private law, that is, governing the actions of individuals. Almost all the everyday life of citizens and the economic activity of enterprises is regulated by the norms of civil law.
Civil law came to the modern world from Ancient Rome. The judicial practice of resolving property disputes of the ancient Romans in the 19th century became the basis of the civil codes of European countries.
A distinctive feature of civil law is the equality of the participants in legal relations, the free will of the participants and their property independence. The state as a power structure practically does not participate in legal relations, with the exception of state registration of rights, property, organizations. The state can be a participant in civil law relations as the owner of property and the founder of enterprises.
In the life of citizens, the norms of civil law regulate:
- records of acts of civil status, recognition as missing, deceased;
- legal capacity, its occurrence, restriction, deprivation;
- guardianship and trusteeship;
- inheritance;
- conclusion of transactions, contracts (except labor), and other obligations.
In the life of legal entities, the norms of civil law regulate:
- organizational and legal forms of legal entities;
- their creation, reorganization, liquidation;
- direct economic activity related to the conclusion of contracts, the fulfillment of obligations.
The principles of civil law are listed in Art. 1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
What else governs civil law
Due to the fact that civil law covers almost all areas of the life of citizens and the activities of organizations and enterprises, it is the most voluminous among other branches of law. Civilism has a very complex ramified structure. It consists of related subsectors, institutes, subinstitutes, which legally fix:
- the legal status of property in its various forms (things, real estate, money, securities, etc.);
- personal non-property relations of citizens, possession of non-material benefits;
- ownership (forms of ownership, conditions for the emergence and termination of rights to property);
- the law of obligations - the rules governing property turnover, it includes contractual law;
- terms, namely aspects of the application of the limitation period;
- the institution of representation, that is, participation in civil legal relations by power of attorney;
- copyright and patent law.
