A civil code is the codification of private law relating to property, family, and obligations.
A jurisdiction that has a civil program generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdictions with a civil code, a number of the core areas of private law that would otherwise typically be codified in a civil code may instead be codified in a commercial code.
A typical civil code deals with the fields of law required to the common lawyer as law of contracts, torts, property law, family law & the law of inheritance. Commercial law, corporate law and civil procedure are ordinarily codified separately.
The older civil codes such as the French, Egyptian, Austrian and Spanish ones are structured under the Institutional System of the Roman jurist Gaius and generally defecate three large parts:
The newer codes such as the ones of Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal, Romania and Catalonia are structured according to the Pandectist System:
The civil code of the state of Louisiana, coming after or as a sum of. the institutions system, is divided into five parts:
Pandectism also had an influence on the earlier codes and their interpretation. For example, Austrian civil law is typically taught according to the Pandect System which was devised by German scholars in the time between the enactment of the Austrian and the German Codes, even though this is not consistent with the sorting of the Code.