Civil law regulates every private contract.
Civil law is the law that is responsible for governing the private ties that people establish between themselves. It is made up of the legal rules that articulate property or personal relationships between individuals (natural persons or legal entities). The purpose of civil law is to preserve the interests of the subject at a patrimonial and moral level.
It should be noted that the law is inspired by principles of justice and allows the development of the laws that regulate the functioning of a society . Civil , for its part, refers to what is related to citizens or cities .
Features of civil law
This branch of law accepts each human being as a subject of law, regardless of their particular activities. Generally, it is made up of the rules that are part of the civil code .
In Anglo-Saxon law, continental law (or civil law ) and positive law (as opposed to natural law ) are recognized as civil law.
Civil law, therefore, includes the law of persons (regulating their legal capacity), family law, property law, the law of obligations and contracts , inheritance law and civil liability rules. , For example.
Private autonomy, good faith and legitimate trust are principles of civil law.
Principles inspired by nature
To understand the bases of civil law, it is necessary to know the notion of natural law , which is the grouping of principles , inspired by nature, of what is considered fair or unfair. These rights (inalienable and universal) are specified through positive or effective law.
Positive law, in turn, can be divided into private law and public law . In its broadest sense, civil law is used as a synonym for private law , since it includes the rules linked to the State and the capacity of individuals.
The birth certificate, the marriage certificate and the death certificate are documents and legal acts that are governed by civil law.
Civil law and same-sex marriage
The importance of homosexual marriage , also called gay or equal marriage , is that it legally validates the union between two people of the same gender, contemplating both the relationship and coexistence , and offering the same rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples. Likewise, the same obligations and requirements are imposed.
While there is evidence of marriages of this type dating back centuries, there was a cultural setback that led to this becoming a problem, and its first solutions only appeared in recent years. The first place in the world in which this institution was recognized was the Netherlands in 2001 , which was followed by more than a dozen nations and regions. But this is not simply a matter of time; In many societies, it is unthinkable to even be openly homosexual, since in more than one case it can be sentenced to death .
Civil institutions called de facto couples or civil unions are other options for legalizing coexistence between two people of the same sex, which in some countries coexist with the possibility of marriage, and in others, or in certain communities, it is the only one allowed. currently offers such links. Although this is a fairer reality than absolute denial, many consider them labels for second-class citizens . And, first of all, it is absurd to try to fix something that is not broken and, even worse, waste time and energy in creating an unsatisfactory solution, when we know the most appropriate one.
The fundamental point does not lie in giving importance to marriage, since love does not require papers or laws, but in recognizing that all human beings are equal and that the only reason to despise someone should be behavior that violates freedom. of another living being. In this way, no one's religion, sexuality or race should matter, but rather their actions and their relationship with nature.
Examples of civil law
Civil law regulates the relationships established in different types of contracts. When two people sign a contract for the sale or lease of a property , for example, the bond is regulated by civil law.
Suppose that a contract establishes that the tenant must pay 50,000 pesos per month to the owner of a property for his rent . You must also be responsible for the utility bills (electricity, gas, etc.). In the event of non-compliance by the tenant with his obligations, the tenant may take action in civil court for the corresponding damages .
Take the case of a marriage that dissolves. Said union governed by civil law is terminated by divorce and then the parties, by virtue of what is established by law, must agree on the care and custody of the children, the child support regime and other issues.
Inheritances , intellectual property and the usufruct of land are other issues governed by civil law, which as we already indicated is associated with the regulation of links between individuals and those of a patrimonial nature.