Background
Italy is a country where civil law predominates, and courts do not obey other organs of power. Apart from that, courts in Italy do not bound by the decision of other courts even though they may be superior. The only court that may influence other courts’ decisions is the high court of cassation (Montanaro, 2021). Italian courts are divided into four branches that concern civil litigation, financial litigation, administrative litigation, and criminal litigation. When speaking about sources of laws, it is necessary to mention that the Italian legislative system is based on Roman law, especially on civil law. Apart from that, there exists the constitution that states the judiciary independent of the executive and legislature.
The Difference between the Common Law and Civil Law
It may be quite hard to distinguish common and civil laws because they are rarely used separately from each other, and many countries use them in combination. The first difference concerns the fact that civil law is more structured and has more common norms and principles, as it is implied that the law touches upon all cases that may happen (Cromwell, 2019). The common law system, on the contrary, is based on the judicial precedent or real cases that already took place that helps the judge deliver verdicts. Thus, judges took a more active part in changing the law system in common law countries than they do in civil law ones.
The Sources of EU Laws and the Competences of EU
There are primary and secondary sources of the EU law, and they concern mainly treaties that define powers of particular institution regulations that have the same features as treaties do. Finally, there exist Directives that need to be implemented by the national legislative systems to have legal power. The Treaties and Regulations become the parts of the national laws of each of EU members automatically after they come into force (European Commission, n.d.). The competencies of the EU concern only the areas where the members agreed to give it the opportunities to take action. Today there exist five areas where the EU has exceptional competencies (European Commission, n.d.). They concern Customs Union, Fiscal Policy of the member countries, general trade policy, preservation of sea resources, and establishing the norms of competition in the domestic market.
References
Cromwell, V. (2019). Common law vs. civil law: An introduction to the different legal systems. QLTS Prep by BARBRI. Web.
European Commission (n.d.). The ABC of EU law.
Montanaro, G. (2022). The Italian legal system. ​Rödl & Partner. Web.