You can't pick and choose the tasks Carana. The McCanns should have stayed in Portugal and assisted the official investigation instead of hightailing it out at the first opportunity. They let Madeleine down and they let themselves down by their actions.
Angelo - you stated earlier tat "The Penal Code won't be that specific". The whole point of having a civil law system is that it is codified and therefore WILL be specific. So if it ain't in the code it does not exist. The penal and civil codes codes in Portugal are in effect a comprehensive rule book.
The following article from Find Law UK provides a brief outline of the differences and may help underline the differences..
Civil law systems The origins of European civil law can be traced back to the sixth century Byzantine / East Roman Empire and the Code of Justinian — or, to give it its Latin name, the ‘corpus juris civilis’ which means ‘body of civil law’. The aim of this Code — and all of its descendants — was to harmonise the law and iron out any contradictions; essentially, to provide an accessible and written rulebook for universal application.
A standard code is a voluminous collection of statutes arranged by subject matter. Since it is the primary source of law, courts in a civil law system are usually inquisitorial rather than adversarial, not bound by precedent, and usually presided over by career judges who play a limited role in interpreting the law.
Common law systems The common law system has its origins in 11th and 12th century England. Its name derives from the efforts of Henry II to institutionalise the common law by establishing a unified legal system that would become ‘common’ throughout the land.
So what are the constituents of this common law? Well, judicial decisions essentially, rather than legislation or executive acts.
But the common law is far more than just judge-made law. The underlying assumption of the common law is courts are bound to follow the same reasoning applied in past cases, which has so-called ‘precedential weight’. Moreover, as the court system developed a hierarchy over the centuries, the decisions of higher courts (e.g., the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, etc) gradually gained greater weight of authority than lower courts and tribunals.
Where a court encounters a case unlike any other it has previously decided, it is free to reach its own mind on what the law should be, thereby creating precedent which will bind future courts.
The other main differences between common law and civil law systems are the absence of career judges and the adversarial nature of proceedings. In a common law system, judges tend to be senior lawyers who are called to the bench after many years practicing the law. Moreover, the judge plays a far less active and dominant role in proceedings. He or she merely interprets the law and ensures the trial is conducted fairly. Judges in common law jurisdictions have no investigatory function, unlike in civil law systems
