Legal Systems Around the World

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering different global legal systems, including codified civil law, common law, customary law, religious law, and mixed systems, based on lecture notes.

Codified civil legal system

A legal system where the laws of a country are written down in a code or codes containing all the law in the area, usually accompanied by a written constitution.

Legislative change requirement in codified systems

It is more difficult to change the law in a code as it usually requires a large majority of the legislature ($75\%$) to vote for a change.

Curia Regis

The King’s court set up by William the Conqueror after the Norman Conquest; it was a travelling court system that became the basis of Common law.

Common law

The unwritten basis of English law that developed from customs and judicial decisions, and applies throughout the land.

Examples of Common law

The law on murder and the tort of negligence.

Customary law

A rule or behaviour which develops in a community without being deliberately invented, described by Lord Justice Coke in the $17\text{th}$ century as ‘one of the main triangles of the law of England.’

EGERTON v HARDING [1974]

A court case involving the consideration of a customary duty to fence land against cattle straying.

WINDSOR CORPORATION v MELLOR [1974]

A case where a local authority was prevented from building on land because local people proved a custom existed giving them the right to use the land for lawful sports.

Religious law

Legal systems originating from sacred texts of a religion that include codes of ethics and morality required by God, viewed as eternal and unchanging.

Halakha

Jewish religious law.

Sharia

Islamic religious law.

Canon law

Christian religious law.

Mixed legal systems

Legal systems based on a combination of civil code, common law, religious law, and statute law, where private law is often dominated by civil code and public law by common law.

Malta's legal system

A mixed system initially based on Roman law that developed into the French Napoleonic Code with influences from Italian civil law and English Common law.

The Channel Island of Jersey

A mixed legal system consisting of modern customary law, English common law, and modern French Civil law.