ICLTE: Legal Systems

What the domain tests

The Legal Systems domain tests whether you can place a text in its legal family before choosing equivalents. ICLTE candidates must distinguish common law, civil law, mixed and plural systems, and explain how court structure, precedent, codification and procedure affect meaning. The exam rewards functional comparison, not word-for-word substitution.

Core rules

• Common law systems treat judicial precedent as a binding source; civil law systems give priority to codes and statutes, though case law may interpret them.
• Common law has at least three senses: the English legal family, judge-made law, and law developed alongside equity. Identify the sense from context.
• Civil law can mean the Romano-Germanic family or private law between citizens. Do not conflate them.
• Procedure changes terminology: claimant/plaintiff, defendant/respondent, discovery/evidence gathering.
• Where an institution is absent, use a functional description plus the source term in brackets on first use.

Worked example

Source: The court applied stare decisis and dismissed the claim. Target: Chinese. Reasoning: stare decisis is a common-law doctrine of binding precedent; a literal rendering may suggest a general rule of consistency. Use the established Chinese term for binding precedent and add (stare decisis) if the reader needs the source doctrine. Dismissed the claim is not rejected the plaintiff; the procedural object is the claim.

Traps

Treating contract and contrat as fully equivalent ignores civilian cause and good-faith doctrines. Reading common law as case law in every context is wrong. Assuming a civil-law notary has the same functions as an English notary costs marks. Avoid importing court names without a gloss.