CEVAP:

• The common law is essentially unwritten, but recently legislation has started to play a more significant role among the sources of law in the common law jurisdictions too.

• The common law is casuistic: components of the legal body are cases, rather than abstract norms. It is, therefore, no surprise that legal education in the common law jurisdictions based on “reading cases”.

• The doctrine of precedent is the supreme principle of the common law. The doctrine of precedent means that is binding for other courts and that the judgments of higher courts are binding on those lower in the judicial system. The rationale for this principle is, among others, the concerns of constancy, predictability, and objectivity, which are objectives of any legal system that seeks justice among its subjects.

• Trial by jury for both criminal and civil cases. This is, indeed, one of the most remarkable features of the common law. In a jury trial, the jury decides on the facts of the case; the judge determines the law.46 One important aspect of the trial by jury is its emphasis on oral argumentation and rhetoric. In the civil law tradition, however, written argument prevails.