Civil Law and Civil Procedure
Substance and procedure together
Civil law questions test the Civil Code relationships (persons, property, ownership, possession, security, prescription) while procedure questions test the Civil Procedure Code (CPC): jurisdiction, claim, evidence, appeal. Keep the two layers separate in your head; examiners often blend them.
Concepts you must know
- Legal capacity versus dispositive capacity of natural persons; guardianship and curatorship.
- Acquisition and loss of ownership; protection of ownership (rei vindicatio, actio negatoria); good-faith possession.
- Security: pledge, mortgage, guarantee, retention; ranking of creditors.
- Prescription: acquisitive and extinctive periods, interruption and suspension.
- Procedure: subject-matter and territorial jurisdiction, admissibility, burden of proof, default, appeal and cassation grounds.
Traps
- Confusing extinctive prescription with limitation periods that are procedural.
- Forgetting that a claim must satisfy both admissibility and merits; a court may dismiss on procedure without reaching substance.
- Misreading who bears the burden of proof when a presumption applies (e.g., good faith, ownership title).
- Mixing first-instance and appellate scope: appeal reviews law and fact, cassation reviews law only.
Worked example
A buyer paid but the seller refuses delivery. Rule of thumb: first ask whether the contract is valid and binding (substance), then whether the claim is admissible and timely (procedure). If the buyer sues for performance, the burden of proving the contract and payment lies on the buyer; the seller must prove any defense (e.g., prior rescission). Check limitation before drafting.
Rule of thumb
Substance first, procedure second; identify the legal relationship, then the procedural gate.