Common law refers to the legal system based on the prevalence of case law, whereas civil law is a system based on the codes and laws of a country.
The Italian legal system is structured on a model that has always been called civil law, and is in contrast to the typical model of Anglo-Saxon systems, called common law. The two types differ in origin, structure, and distribution of functions between the powers of the state, and especially in the roles that the written law and the decisions of jurisprudence take on in the two systems in relation to concrete cases. Common law refers to the legal system based on the prevalence of case law, whereas civil law is a system based on the codes and laws of a country. On the basis of this assumption, there would be two protagonists in this apparent opposition: the judge and the law; jurisprudence and doctrine.