Legal system

This entry provides descriptions of countries' legal systems, which are modeled on elements of five main types: civil law (including French law, the Napoleonic Code, Roman law, Roman-Dutch law, and Spanish law); common law (including United States law); customary law; mixed or pluralistic law; and religious law (including Islamic law). An additional type of legal system -- international law, which governs nations' interactions -- is also addressed below. 

Civil Law - the most widespread type of legal system in the world, applied in various forms in approximately 150 countries. Also referred to as European continental law, it is derived mainly from the Roman Corpus Juris Civilus (Body of Civil Law), a collection of laws and legal interpretations compiled under the East Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Justinian I between A.D. 528 and 565. The major feature of civil law systems is that the laws are organized into systematic written codes. The sources recognized as authoritative are principally legislation -- especially codifications in constitutions or government statutes -- and secondarily custom. 
Common Law - often called "English common law," England and Wales use the system in the UK, and it is also in force in approximately 80 countries with ties to the former British Empire. English common law reflects Biblical influences as well as remnants of legal systems imposed by early conquerors, including the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Normans. Some legal scholars attribute the system to King Henry II (r.1154-1189), who established the king's court to replace locally administered laws and made laws "common" to the entire English realm. The foundation of the system is "legal precedent," often referred to as stare decisis ("to stand by things decided"), in which judges must follow the precedent set by earlier court decisions.
Customary Law - as the name implies, this system is based on the customs of a community. It serves as the basis of or has influenced the laws in approximately 40 countries -- mostly in Africa, but some in the Pacific Islands, Europe, and the Near East. Customary law is also referred to as "primitive law," "unwritten law," "indigenous law," and "folk law." The earliest legal systems were customary and usually developed in small agrarian and hunter-gatherer communities. Customary legal systems are seldom written down, regulate social relations, and are agreed upon by community members. If a law is broken, resolution tends to be reconciliatory rather than punitive. 
European Union (EU) Law - a variant of international law unique to a subset of European countries. Also known as Community Law or supranational law, the rights of sovereign European nations are limited in relation to one another, with EU law operating in tandem with the 27 member states' legal systems. The European Court of Justice (ECJ), established in 1952 by the Treaty of Paris, has been largely responsible for the development of EU law. Fundamental principles include: subsidiarity - issues are handled by the smallest, lowest, or least centralized competent authority; proportionality - the EU may only act to the extent needed to achieve its objectives; conferral - the EU is a union of member states, and members grant all its authorities; legal certainty - requires that rules be clear and precise; and precautionary principle - if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public or the environment, in the absence of a scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who advocate the action.
French Law - a type of codified civil law that is used in France and serves as the basis for or is mixed with other legal systems in approximately 50 countries in North Africa, the Near East, and French territories and dependencies. Prior to the French Revolution (1789-1799), laws in the northern areas of present-day France were mostly local customs based on privileges and exemptions granted by kings and feudal lords, while in the southern areas Roman law predominated. Napoleon Bonaparte introduced what is now called the Napoleonic Code or the Civil Code in the early 1800s; many of these major reforms remain, with extensive amendments, part of France's current legal structure. French law distinguishes between "public law," which relates to government, the French Constitution, public administration, and criminal law, and "private law," which covers issues between private citizens or corporations. 
International Law - the body of customary and treaty rules accepted as legally binding by states in their relations with each other. There are three separate disciplines: public international law, which governs the relationship between provinces and international entities and includes treaty law, law of the sea, international criminal law, and international humanitarian law; private international law, which addresses legal jurisdiction; and supranational law, a legal framework of regional agreements. At present, the European Union is the only entity under a supranational legal system. Modern international law developed as European nation-states emerged beginning in the early 16th century. The sources are set out in Article 38-1 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice in the UN Charter.
Islamic Law - the most widespread type of religious law, it is the legal system in over 30 countries, particularly in the Near East but also in Central and South Asia, Africa, and Indonesia. In many countries, Islamic law operates in tandem with a civil law system and is embodied in the sharia, an Arabic word meaning "the right path." Sharia covers all aspects of public and private life and organizes them into five categories: obligatory, recommended, permitted, disliked, and forbidden. The primary sources of sharia law are the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Traditional Sunni Muslims also recognize the consensus of Muhammad's companions and Islamic jurists on certain issues, called ijmas, and various forms of reasoning, including analogy by legal scholars, referred to as qiyas. Shia Muslims reject ijmas and qiyas as sources of sharia law.
Mixed Law - also referred to as pluralistic law, mixed law consists of elements of some or all of the other main types of legal systems. The mixed systems of a number of countries came about when colonial powers overlaid their own legal systems on colonized regions but retained elements of the colonies' existing systems.
Napoleonic Civil Code - a type of civil law, referred to as the Civil Code or Code Civil des Français, that forms part of the French legal system and underpins the legal systems of Bolivia, Egypt, Lebanon, Poland, and the US state of Louisiana. The Civil Code was established under Napoleon Bonaparte, enacted in 1804, and officially designated the Code Napoleon in 1807. This legal system combined the Teutonic civil law tradition of France's northern provinces with the Roman law tradition of the southern and eastern regions. The Civil Code has similarities with the Roman Body of Civil Law (see Civil Law above). As enacted in 1804, the Code addressed personal status, property, and the acquisition of property, with later additions including civil procedures, commercial law, criminal law and procedures, and a penal code.
Religious Law - a legal system that stems from the sacred text of a religious tradition and in most cases professes to cover all aspects of life as part of devotional obligations. Inalterability is implied, because the word of God cannot be amended or legislated, but human elaboration allows for a detailed legal system. The main types of religious law are sharia in Islam, halakha in Judaism, and canon law in some Christian groups. Sharia is the most widespread (see Islamic Law) and is the sole system for some countries, including Iran, the Maldives, and Saudi Arabia. No country is fully governed by halakha, but Jewish people may decide to settle disputes through Jewish courts. Canon law is not considered a divine law because it is viewed as human law inspired by God. Canon law regulates the internal ordering of the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion.
Roman Law - a type of civil law developed in ancient Rome and practiced from the time of the city's founding (traditionally 753 B.C.) until the fall of the Western Empire in the 5th century A.D. Roman law remained the legal system of the Byzantine (Eastern Empire) until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Preserved fragments of the first legal text, known as the Law of the Twelve Tables, date from the 5th century B.C. and contain specific provisions designed to change prevailing customary law. Later, emperors asserted their authority as the ultimate source of law. The basis for Roman law was the idea that the exact form -- not the intention -- of words or of actions produced legal consequences. A comprehensive code was published in the late sixth century A.D. (see Civil Law). Roman law served as the basis for legal systems developed in a number of continental European countries.
Roman-Dutch Law - a type of civil law based on Roman law as applied in the Netherlands. Roman-Dutch law is the foundation for legal systems in seven African countries, as well as Guyana, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. It originated in the province of Holland and expanded throughout the Netherlands and was instituted in a number of sub-Saharan African countries during the Dutch colonial period. The Dutch jurist/philosopher Hugo Grotius was the first to attempt to reduce Roman-Dutch civil law into a system in his Jurisprudence of Holland (1620-21), and the Dutch historian/lawyer Simon van Leeuwen coined the term "Roman-Dutch law" in 1652. It replaced by the French Civil Code in 1809.
Spanish Law - a type of civil law that is often referred to as the Spanish Civil Code. It is the present legal system of Spain and the basis of legal systems in 12 countries, mostly in Central and South America. The Spanish Civil Code reflects a complex mixture of customary, Roman, Napoleonic, local, and modern codified law. The Visigoth invaders in the 5th to 7th centuries were the earliest major influence, and the Christian Reconquest of Spain in the 11th through 15th centuries saw the development of customary law, which combined canon (religious) and Roman law. During several centuries of Hapsburg and Bourbon rule, systematic recompilations of the existing national legal system were attempted, but these often conflicted with local and regional customary civil laws. A national civil law system was finally enacted in 1889 as the Spanish Civil Code, which separates public and private law. Public law includes constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law, process law, financial and tax law, and international public law. Private law includes civil law, commercial law, labor law, and international private law.
United States Law - a type of common law and the basis of the US legal system. This system has several layers, which is due in part to the division between federal and state law. The United States was originally founded as a union of 13 colonies that later became the first states. The US Constitution, implemented in 1789, began shifting power away from the states and toward the federal government, though the states today retain substantial legal authority. US law draws from four sources: constitutional law, statutory law, administrative regulations, and case law. Constitutional law is based on the US Constitution and serves as the supreme federal law, with state constitutions governing state law. US statutory law is legislation enacted by the US Congress and is codified in the United States Code. The 50 state legislatures have similar authority to enact state statutes. Administrative law is the authority delegated to federal and state executive agencies. Case law, also referred to as common law, covers areas where constitutional or statutory law is lacking. Case law is a collection of judicial decisions, customs, and general principles that began in England centuries ago, that were adopted in America at the time of the Revolution, and that continue to develop today.