civil law

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The body of law of a state or nation governing the behavior of individuals and corporations.
• noun The law determining private rights and liabilities, as opposed to criminal law and other public law.
• noun The law of ancient Rome as embodied in the Justinian code, especially that which applied to private citizens.
• noun A system of law having its origin in Roman law, as opposed to common law or canon law.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun law Roman law based on the Corpus Juris Civilis; it contrasts with common law.
• noun law The body of law dealing with the private relations between members of a community; it contrasts with criminal law, military law and ecclesiastical law.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the body of laws established by a state or nation for its own regulation
• noun the legal code of ancient Rome; codified under Justinian; the basis for many modern systems of civil law