Legal Systems of The World

LegalSystemsoftheWorld
Thefivemajorlegalsystemsoftheworldtodayconsistof:

CivilLaw
CommonLaw
ReligiousLaw
CustomaryLaw
Pluralism
However, each country developed variations on each system or incorporated aspects of

othersintotheirownsystem.
CivilLaw
Civil Law Continental European Law are codifications within a constitution or an
amendable statute passed by legislature. It is the most widespread system of law in the
world.
Civil Law mainly derived from the Roman Empire and extensive reform in Byzantium (ca.
529AD), resulting in the codified documents Corpus Juris Civilis. Civil Law was also partly
influencedbyreligiouslawssuchasCanonandIslamicLaw.Onlylegislativeenactmentsare
consideredlegallybinding.
CivilLawcanbesubdividedintofourdistinctgroups:
FrenchCivilLaw:France,theBeneluxcountries,Italy,Spain,andtheirformercolonies;
German Civil Law: Germany, Austria, Croatia, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal, Turkey,
Japan,SouthKoreaandtheRepublicofChina;
ScandinavianCivilLaw:Denmark,Norway,Sweden,FinlandandIceland;
ChineseLaw:mixtureofcivillawandsocialistlaw.
The European Union Court of Justice mixes Civil Law (based on the treaties), attaching
importanceofCaseLaw.
CommonLaw
CommonLawderivedfromcasedecisionsbyjudges.EverycountryusingCommonLawalso
has a legislature that passes new laws and statutes, however these do not amend the
originalcollectedandcodifiedbodyoflaw.
The doctrine of stare decisis (precedent by courts) is the major difference to codified Civil
Lawsystems.
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Common Law developed in England, influenced by the Norman legal concepts.
CommonLawwaslaterinheritedandpracticedbytheCommonwealthofNations.Common
LawisalsopracticedinIreland,SouthAfrica,HongKongandtheUnitedStates.Inadditionto
these countries, several others have adapted the Common Law into a mixed system e.g.
PakistanandNigeriaoperatelargelyonaCommonLaw,butincorporateReligiousLaw.
OneofthemostfundamentaldocumentstoshapeCommonLawistheMagnaCarta which
placedlimitsonthepoweroftheEnglishKings.ItservedasaBillofRightsforthearistocracy
andthejudiciarywhodevelopedthelaw.
ReligiousLaw
ReligiousLawreferstoareligioussystemordocumentusedasalegalsource.
The main Religious Laws are Sharia in Islam, Halakha in Judaism, and Canon Law in
Christianity.Insomecasestheseareintendedpurelyasindividualmoralguidance,whereas
inothercasestheyareintendedandmaybeusedasthebasisforacountry'slegalsystem.
Sharia
TheIslamiclegalsystemofSharia(IslamicLaw)andFiqh(IslamicJurisprudence)isthemost
widely used Religious Law. Islamic Sharia Law (and Fiqh jurisprudence) is based on legal
precedentandreasoningbyanalogy(Qiyas),thusconsideredsimilartoCommon Law.Itis
notadivinelaw,asonlyafractionofSharialawisbasedontheQur'anandSunnah,while
the majority of its rulings are based on the Ulema (jurists) who used the methods of Ijma
(consensus), Qiyas (analogical deduction), Ijtihad (reason) and Urf (common practice) to
deriveFatw(legalopinions).
DuringtheIslamicGoldenAge,classicalIslamicLawinfluencedthedevelopmentofCommon
andCivilLawinstitutions.ShariaLawgovernsanumberofIslamiccountries,includingSaudi
Arabia and Iran, though most use Sharia Law only as a supplement to national law. It can
relatetoallaspectsofcivillaw,includingpropertyrights,contractsorpubliclaw.
Halakha
The Jewish Halakha, for public law, has a static and unalterable quality, preventing
amendment through legislative acts of government or development through judicial
precedent. It is followed by orthodox and conservativeJews in bothecclesiastical andcivil
relations. No country is fully governed by Halakha, but disputebased rulings in a Jewish
courtarelegallybinding.
CanonLaw
ChristianCanonLawissimilartoCivilLawinitsuseofcivilcodes.Itisnotadivinelawasitis
notfoundinrevelation.Instead,itisseenashumanlawinspiredbythewordofGodand
applying the demands of that revelation to the actual situation of the church. Canon Law
regulates the internal ordering of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and the Anglican
Churches.Canonlawisamendedandadaptedbythelegislativeauthorityofthechurch,such
as councils of bishops, single bishops for their respective sees, the Pope for the entire
CatholicChurch,andtheBritishParliamentfortheChurchofEngland.
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LegalPluralism
LegalPluralismistheexistenceofmultiplelegalsystemswithinonegeographicarea.Plural
legalsystemsareparticularlycommoninformercolonies,wherethelawofaformercolonial
authority may exist alongside more traditional legal systems. When these systems
developed,theideawasthatcertainissues(e.g.,commercialtransactions)wouldbecovered
by Common Law, while other issues (e.g., family and marriage) would be covered by
TraditionalLaw.
Legalpluralismalsooccurswhendifferentlawsgoverndifferentgroupswithinacountry.For
example, in India and Tanzania, there are special Muslim courts that address concerns in
MuslimcommunitiesbyfollowingIslamiclawprinciples.Secularcourtsdealwiththeissues
ofothercommunities.
CustomaryLaw
Inlaw,customcanbedescribedastheestablishedpatternsofbehaviourwithinaparticular
culture.Aclaimcanbecarriedoutindefenceof"whathasalwaysbeendoneandaccepted
bylaw."
Generally,customarylawexistswhere:
1. acertainlegalpracticeisobserved;and
2. therelevantactorsconsiderittobelaw(opiniojuris).
Customarylawisarecognizedbutinferiorsourceoflawwithinjurisdictionsofthecivil
law tradition, inferior to both statutes and regulations. In Canada, Australia and New
Zealand,customaryaboriginallawalreadyhasaconstitutionalfoundationandinfluence.
CustomarylawcontinuestobeusedinmanyEmergingandDevelopingnations,usuallyused
alongside Common or Civil Law. In 1995, the President of Kyrgyzstan announced the
resumptionoftheaqsaqalcourtsofvillageelders,grantingjurisdictionoverproperty,torts
andfamilylaw.Similarcourtsexist,withvaryinglevelsoflegalformality,inothercountries
ofCentralAsia.
Kanun
TheKanun(TheCodeofLekDukagjini) isasetoflawsusedmostlyinnorthernAlbaniaand
Kosovo from the 15th century, revived after the fall of the communist regime in the early
1990s.
AlthoughattributedtotheAlbanianprinceLekDukagjini,theKanunevolvedovertimeasa
waytobringlawsandruletotheland.Thecodewasdividedintosections:Church,Family,
Marriage,House,LivestockandProperty,Work,TransferofProperty,SpokenWord,Honour,
Damages,LawRegardingCrimes,JudicialLaw,andExemptionsandExceptions.
TheserulesresurfacedinnorthernAlbania,aspeoplehadnofaithinthelocalgovernment
andpolice.
NoacknowledgmentofthiscodeismadeinthecontemporaryAlbanianlegalsystem.
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LegalSystemsoftheWorld

However, each country developed variations on each system or incorporated aspects of

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