ZMYŚLONE A RZECZYWISTE KODYFIKACJE. O KONKURENCJI KOMENTARZA I PODRĘCZNIKA W CYWILISTYCE LATYNOAMERYKAŃSKIEJ

Abstract

With the “glosa” on the Siete Partidas (13th century) by G. López (16th century), Latin America possesses an excellent example of a commentary on a civil law code, actually one of the greatest of the civil law tradition. Yet, the Latin American countries did not develop, as a rule, a proper culture of commentaries, albeit they gave themselves civil codes around the middle of the 19th century. The most important of these codifications, the Chilean civil code by Andrés Bello, is even a conscious continuation of the tradition enshrined in the Siete Partidas. In most countries, authors prefer instead to write textbooks. This choice seems to be explained by the fact that this literary form gives them more freedom to distance themselves from their civil codes, which are considered rather historical monuments than living legal texts. Commentaries appear only where the civil lawyers deal with a modern codification which is the case in Argentina and Brazil.