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I am trying to develop an artificial legal reasoning system. I am using the English language for it, but I want/need to develop it (firsthand) for the civil/continental law system, not for the common law / Anglo-Saxon law system. But currently it seems impossible to do this, because I don't know any English-speaking jurisdiction that uses a civil law system. Is there any such jurisdiction/country? Maybe a very small one, but still with its corpus of law and with some amount of case law (court decisions)?

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    Is your problem only to get a reliable English text of the laws?
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 8:00
  • Generally yes - I need only English text e.g. for the French or Germany law. But I need not just the texts of the laws/acts (which are more or less available), but also - the case law (extended court decisions and, maybe, also court proceedings) (which are unavailable except for just some important decisions in the more general area of constitutional matters and not of the tax and accounting law) and the commentaries and law science.
    – TomR
    Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 12:21
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    Note that in bijuridical subnational jurisdictions such as Louisiana and Quebec, the criminal law is often treated in line with the nationally dominant legal system (common law). Scots law though is far more independent in all aspects.
    – xngtng
    Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 16:51

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Because of its French roots, Louisiana uses civil law.

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    Scots law is a hybrid system containing civil law and common law elements.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 10:08
  • Note that it's just civil law (the other branches of law having been transitioned to Common Law quite a while ago.
    – RonJohn
    Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 22:15
  • @RonJohn: That comment doesn't seem to make sense. Did you accidentally substitute a wrong word somewhere in there?
    – user2357112
    Commented Nov 22, 2020 at 8:18
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    @user2357112supportsMonica In the common law system 'civil law' is a branch of the law that deals with things like disputes between individuals and organizations, distinct from criminal law. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_law
    – bdsl
    Commented Nov 22, 2020 at 11:58
  • @user2357112supportsMonica no, but I forgot a closing parenthesis. User bdsl clarified what I meant by Civil Law. Sorry for the confusion.
    – RonJohn
    Commented Nov 22, 2020 at 14:29
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Malta has two official languages, one of which is English (the other is of course Maltese), and its legal system is based on a mixture of common law and civil law. I don’t know in which language its legal decisions are published, though.

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Generally yes - I need only English text e.g. for the French or Germany law.

A list of (semi-offcial) German Federal Law translations can be found here:

Translations of these materials into languages other than German are intended solely as a convenience to the non-German-reading public. Any discrepancies or differences that may arise in translations of the official German versions of these materials are not binding and have no legal effect for compliance or enforcement purposes.

But I need not just the texts of the laws/acts (which are more or less available), but also - the case law (extended court decisions and, maybe, also court proceedings) (which are unavailable except for just some important decisions in the more general area of constitutional matters and not of the tax and accounting law) and the commentaries and law science.

In my experience, Google Translate with Federal laws brings good results.

With State (Länder) law, the results often need a lot of corrections.

So for case or court proceedings, you should try Google Translate.

The results will probably vary depending on the writing style.

Sources:

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Similar to Louisiana, the Province of Quebec in Canada uses Civil Law, also due to its French roots.

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    Although laws and regulations are published bilingually with equal force by constitution, trials and decisions are mostly conducted in French, especially for civil trials, and are often untranslated. It does provide a good resource for OP though, since there are still some English decisions and any federal appeals are published in both languages.
    – xngtng
    Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 17:00
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South Africa also has an hybrid legal system.

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