Civil Law in India

In this paper an effort is made to trace the extent of civil law influence on Indian law and to indicate the need for the teaching of civil law in Indian law schools. Studying the civil law system will not only enlarge the knowledge of a student’s storehouse of alternatives but will also enrich his understanding of the common law itself. The importance of the historical events of the annexation of former Portuguese and French possessions into the Union of India, and the fact that civilian thinking was not too infrequently utilized by judges and lawyers in British India, are demonstrative of the need for the comparative scholar to appreciate the relevance of the infusion of civil law elements into the Indian legal system.