The 8 sources of civil law (1)

eu law

part of maltese civil law not foreign law, eu law has supremacy over conflicting domestic law, rights and remedies under eu law are enforceable in malta, examples include brussels i regulation, brussels ii ter regulation, rome iii regulation, succession regulation, european certificate of inheritance

domestic written law

principal source of written civil law in malta, enacted by parliament or authorised bodies, includes acts of parliament and subsidiary legislation, black letter law - formally enacted legislation, soft law - guidelines, codes of practice, soft law may become binding if recognised by legislation, article 2 of the commercial code recognises usages of trade

customary law

established practices recognised as law, supplements written legislation, must be pleaded by the parties, must be proved as fact, not applied ex officio by the court, historical school viewed custom as the people's legal conscience, still recognised despite the dominance of written law

jurisprudence

consists of court judgments, courts interpret and apply legislation, helps develop civil law, no doctrine of binding precedent in malta, previous judgments are persuasive only, courts frequently consult earlier decisions, promotes consistency in legal interpretation, debate exists whether it is a true source of law