of low literacy levels and later enforced to place the judicial power in the hands of the crown. They argue that both French and English judiciaries had the de facto power to make law through precedent, and that French judges enjoyed a greater independence because their office could be inherited as property. Hence, the only permanent divergence between the legal orders in England and in France originated from the different fortunes of the judiciary in the aftermath of their respective revolutions. Adaptability of Judge-made Law The key institution differentiating the two legal traditions is the lawmaking institution, which determines the identity of the lawmaker. Common law relies on case law, whereby precedents set by appellate courts guide subsequent adjudication by courts of the same or lower standing and can be changed by appellate judges only with a costly justification effort. Civil law instead relies on statute law, which comprises legislation enacted by political representatives. "Legal origins" scholars identify three main advantages of judge-made law compared with statute law: Since overruling is costly, precedents tend to include both the deciding appellate judge’s opinion and those of the preceding appellate judges in such a way that the long-run law optimally incorporates the different opinions of all appellate judges, whereas statute law can be permanently biased by special interests. Appellate judges can effectively introduce new information into the law by distinguishing the precedent. Since inefficient rules tend to be appealed more often, they should be evaluated more often by appellate judges than by politicians. References Sources Merryman, John H., 1969. The Civil Law Tradition. Stanford University Press, Stanford. Roe, Mark J., 2004. Convergence and Persistence in Corporate Governance. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. World Bank. 2004. Doing Business in 2004: Understanding Regulation. Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, Washington, DC. Zweigert, Konrad, and Hein Kötz. 1998. Introduction to Comparative Law, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford-New York. Economic theories Theories of law Comparative law Law and economics Comparative economic systems