What has the common law gained from the civil law?
I would say that the Anglophone courts have also got something new. Previously criminal cases and civil cases were tried separately. If for instance, somebody committed a criminal offence and the victim wanted to bring a civil action, he had to wait until the criminal action was tried in court to finality. But now the two go together in the name of partie civile. That is something new. Of course, people have argued that it is good because there is rapidity of justice. There is also the question of bail. To the Anglophone, bail was a written undertaking that I will come to court on this day. If I don’t come, the amount of money stated in that undertaking will be forfeited to the state. We never deposited money. But it is now in two arms; the recognisance is still there; that is the written undertaking and, as I said earlier, the magistrate asking somebody to deposit a given sum of money which he alone determines. That is something new to us. There is a new element to the Anglophones cal
