The institutions and practices of canon law paralleled the legal development of much of <answer>Europe</answer>, and consequently both modern civil law and common law (legal system) bear the influences of canon law. Edson Luiz Sampel, a Brazilian expert in canon law, says that canon law is contained in the genesis of various institutes of civil law, such as the law in continental <answer>Europe</answer> and Latin American countries. Sampel explains that canon law has significant influence in contemporary society.
What continent's laws developed alongside those of the Church?
Europe