Thanks, Raoul.

Civil law -- contracts, voting rights, custody and competency, inheritance -- is much more fluid than criminal law. I would have expected constant evolution of civil law.

I asked about criminal law because it hasn't changed materially in the United States for, well, ever. Fine points only: interpretation of the Bill of Rights, and redefinition of who's a citizen, but other than that, not much change. It seemed plausible that the same was true of other legal systems. My best understanding of criminal law in France stems from one 110-year-old case: the Dreyfus case. And I understand that corruption and anti-Semitism were major factors in that, so it isn't strictly speaking representative.