Question

describe each of the three most common legal systems

Answer 1

The three most common legal systems are discussed below:

1. Common Law Legal System: On the basis of tradition, past practices, and legal precedents set by the courts/judges through interpretations of statutes, legal legislation, and past rulings common laws come into being. It generally refers to the law which is set by the rulings of the judges. The decisions of the judges become "case law" under this legal system and in future cases when parties’ disagree what the law is, court following common law looks to past precedential decisions of relevant courts and thus decision is being made. If a same kind of dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is thus bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision but if the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct and unique from all previous cases judges have the authority and duty to make law by creating precedent (case law). After such decision of the judges the new decision becomes precedent (case law), and will bind future courts. Australia, Bhutan, Canada, Cyprus are the nations which have a legal system based on the English Common Law.

1. The Code Law Legal System: This legal system is based on the coded (written) law. Under this legal system the code law is generally divided into three parts i.e. commercial, civil, and criminal. This legal system is also referred as Civil Law system which means the codified law system. Laws are coded in very detail and then organised into parts which deals with different spheres of life. The code specifies what a legal behaviour is and what is prohibited; everything is described in words and is very detailed. Code law legal system comes from the Roman Law and more than 82 countries of the world follow this kind of legal system. The courts operating under this legal system do not have much flexibility as compared to the courts under common law system because everything here is defined and written and the courts depend upon it for their judgement. Examples of few of the countries which follow this kind of legal system are: Russia, Japan, China, Taiwan etc.

1. Theocratic Law Legal System: This type of legal system is based on the religious teaching, principles and theories of religious books and scriptures. This type of legal system is based on morality and not on the requirements of human behaviours. Whatever is considered to be moral under the religious teachings of a particular religion will be followed as law. The courts under this type of legal system depend upon writings of religious scholars and teachers of such religious principles, the interpretation of their religious scriptures. The judges are generally scholars who have a sound knowledge of religious principles and this legal is generally strict as compared to the other legal systems. One of the most widely practiced religious legal systems in today’s world is Islamic law or Sharia. It is based on the Holy book of Islam the Holy Quran and on interpretation of the practices and sayings of Prophet Mohammad A.S. Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Morocco etc. are the nations which follow this legal system.