Common sense and the principles of tort law in the American civil justice system are not always synonymous.

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The states are ceding many blocking powers, but in return for new ones from the federal level, particularly in higher education, the penal system and civil-service law.

ECONOMIST: German reform

To advocate an open-ended qualification of the common-law system by introducing unspecified civil-law concepts is to betray the basic spirit and intent of the "basic policies" and the Basic Law.

CNN: HOLD TO THE COMMON LAW

However, Hong Kong is part of China, which has a civil-law system, under which the ultimate power of interpretation is vested in the NPC's Standing Committee (SC).

CNN: A NEW CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER

But Thailand's legal system is based on civil law, so the case may not be treated as a precedent by other bankruptcy judges.

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John Wadham, director of civil rights organisation Liberty, described the law as "a fundamental part of our criminal justice system".

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It is inevitable, she argues, that under the "new constitutional order, " civil law concepts practiced in the rest of China should be absorbed by and form part of our legal system.

CNN: HOLD TO THE COMMON LAW

They propose a smaller parliament and civil service, a new electoral law, a better system of tax collection and measures to stimulate the economy.

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