The aim of this book is to introduce the student to the family of legal systems common to Europe, Latin America, and East Asia. The materials include readings that explain what binds together countries that participate in the world's oldest, most widely distributed, and most influential legal tradition. At the same time, the authors use materials from or about specific countries to illustrate the many fascinating variations that exist within the civil law tradition. The principal countries utilized for this purpose are France, Germany, Italy, and Spain within Europe; Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, and Mexico within Latin America; and Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand in East Asia.

A distinguishing feature of this book is its relative deemphasis of rules and related doctrine and greater attention to the intellectual history, structure, professional actors, and processes that are characteristic of civil law systems.

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