CIVIL LAW, a phrase which, with its Latin equivalent, ins civile, has been used in a great variety of meanings. lus civile was sometimes used to distinguish that portion of the Roman law which was the proper or ancient law of the city or state of Rome from the ins gentium, or the law common to all the nations com prising the Roman world, which was incorporated with the former through the agency of the praetorian edicts. This historical dis tinction remained as a principle of division in the body of the Roman law. The municipal or private law of a state is sometimes described as civil law in distinction from public or international law. Again, the municipal law of a state may be divided into civil law and criminal law. The phrase, however, is applied par excel lence to the system of law created by the genius of the Roman people, and handed down by them to the nations of the modern world (see ROMAN LAW). The civil law in this sense would be distinguished from the local or national law of modern states. It is further to be distinguished from that adaptation of its prin ciples to ecclesiastical purposes which is known as the canon law (q.v.). In countries which have codified their law the civil code contains the legislation which governs the civil relation of the citizens inter se, but excluding subjects dealt with in special codes, such as commerce, procedure and crime. It therefore includes citizenship, marriage, divorce, contract, sale, partition, exchange, mortgage, usufruct, servitudes, succession, wrongs and so on. (See CODE.)