Civil Law and Civil Procedure
Civil law core
Understand legal persons and capacity, the law of obligations (contract, fault-based and strict liability), and the law of things (ownership, possession, real rights, security). Know the general theory of the legal act: capacity, consent, object, form, and the causes of nullity and annulment. Distinguish void acts (nullity, ex tunc) from voidable acts (annulment, subject to confirmation and prescription).
Civil procedure
Master the structure of the process: petition, contestation, instruction, debate, judgment. Know the rules on jurisdiction (territorial and by value), competence, standing, and representation. Understand the burden of proof (on the party asserting the fact), admissible evidence, and the effect of res judicata. Learn the ordinary and extraordinary appeals and their grounds and deadlines.
Traps
Exams test the difference between nullity of the act and nullity of procedural acts, and the distinction between prescription (extinction of the right) and preclusion (loss of procedural power). Watch for questions on default and its effects, and on the limits of the judge's power to supplement the parties' pleadings.
Worked rule
When a claim is met with the objection that the time limit has passed, first identify whether the period is one of prescription (substantive) or a procedural deadline; only the latter is counted in procedural days and precludes the act.