Bemba 30.1% (official), Nyanja 10.7% (official), Tonga 10.6%
(official), Lozi 5.7% (official), Chewa 4.9%, Nsenga 3.4%, Tumbuka
2.5%, Lunda 2.2% (official), Kaonde 2% (official), Lala 2%, Luvale
1.7% (official), English 1.7% (official), other 22.5% (2000 Census)
Zimbabwe
English (official), Shona, Sindebele (the language of the
Ndebele, sometimes called Ndebele), numerous but minor tribal
dialects
======================================================================
@2100
Field Listing :: Legal system
This entry provides the description of a country's legal system; it
also includes information on acceptance of International Court of
Justice (ICJ) jurisdiction. The legal systems of nearly all
countries are generally modeled upon 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
State law); customary law; mixed or pluralistic law; and religious
law (including Islamic law). An additional type of legal system -
international law, which governs the conduct of independent nations
in their relationships with one another - is also addressed below.
The following list describes these legal systems, the countries or
world regions where these systems are enforced, and a brief
statement on the origins and major features of each.
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, the civil law system 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. In civil law the sources
recognized as authoritative are principally legislation - especially
codifications in constitutions or statutes enacted by governments -
and secondarily, custom. The civil law systems in some countries are
based on more than one code.
Common Law - A type of legal system, often synonymous with "English
common law," which is the system of England and Wales in the UK, and
is also in force in approximately 80 countries formerly part of or
influenced by the former British Empire. English common law reflects
Biblical influences as well as remnants of law systems imposed by
early conquerors including the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Normans.
Some legal scholars attribute the formation of the English common
law system to King Henry II (r.1154-1189). Until the time of his
reign, laws customary among England's various manorial and
ecclesiastical (church) jurisdictions were administered locally.
Henry II established the king's court and designated that laws were
"common" to the entire English realm. The foundation of English
common law is "legal precedent" - referred to as stare decisis,
meaning "to stand by things decided." In the English common law
system, court judges are bound in their decisions in large part by
the rules and other doctrines developed - and supplemented over time
- by the judges of earlier English courts.
Customary Law - A type of legal system that serves as the basis of,
or has influenced, the present-day 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."
There is no single history of customary law such as that found in
Roman civil law, English common law, Islamic law, or the Napoleonic
Civil Code. The earliest systems of law in human society were
customary, and usually developed in small agrarian and
hunter-gatherer communities. As the term implies, customary law is
based upon the customs of a community. Common attributes of
customary legal systems are that they are seldom written down, they
embody an organized set of rules regulating social relations, and
they are agreed upon by members of the community. Although such law
systems include sanctions for law infractions, resolution tends to
be reconciliatory rather than punitive. A number of African states
practiced customary law many centuries prior to colonial influences.
Following colonization, such laws were written down and incorporated
to varying extents into the legal systems imposed by their colonial
powers.
European Union Law - A sub-discipline of international law known as
"supranational law" in which the rights of sovereign nations are
limited in relation to one another. Also referred to as the Law of
the European Union or Community Law, it is the unique and complex
legal system that operates in tandem with the laws of the 27 member
states of the European Union (EU). Similar to federal states, the EU
legal system ensures compliance from the member states because of
the Union's decentralized political nature. 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 of European Union law include: subsidiarity - the notion
that issues be 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 all its authorities are voluntarily
granted by its members; legal certainty - requires that legal rules
be clear and precise; and precautionary principle - a moral and
political principle stating that if an action or policy might cause
severe or irreversible harm to the public or to the environment, in
the absence of a scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the
burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the action.
French Law - A type of civil law that is the legal system of France.
The French system also serves as the basis for, or is mixed with,
other legal systems in approximately 50 countries, notably in North
Africa, the Near East, and the French territories and dependencies.
French law is primarily codified or systematic written civil law.
Prior to the French Revolution (1789-1799), France had no single
national legal system. 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. The introduction of the Napoleonic Civil Code
during the reign of Napoleon I in the first decade of the 19th
century brought major reforms to the French legal system, many of
which remain part of France's current legal structure, though all
have been extensively amended or redrafted to address a modern
nation. French law distinguishes between "public law" and "private
law." Public law relates to government, the French Constitution,
public administration, and criminal law. Private law covers issues
between private citizens or corporations. The most recent changes to
the French legal system - introduced in the 1980s - were the
decentralization laws, which transferred authority from centrally
appointed government representatives to locally elected
representatives of the people.
International Law - The law of the international community, or the
body of customary rules and treaty rules accepted as legally binding
by states in their relations with each other. International law
differs from other legal systems in that it primarily concerns
sovereign political entities. There are three separate disciplines
of international law: 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 wherein countries are bound by regional agreements in
which the laws of the member countries are held inapplicable when in
conflict with supranational laws. At present the European Union is
the only entity under a supranational legal system. The term
"international law" was coined by Jeremy Bentham in 1780 in his
Principles of Morals and Legislation, though laws governing
relations between states have been recognized from very early times
(many centuries B.C.). Modern international law developed alongside
the emergence and growth of the European nation-states beginning in
the early 16th century. Other factors that influenced the
development of international law included the revival of legal
studies, the growth of international trade, and the practice of
exchanging emissaries and establishing legations. The sources of
International law are set out in Article 38-1 of the Statute of the
International Court of Justice within the UN Charter.
Islamic Law - The most widespread type of religious law, it is the
legal system enforced 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. Islamic law 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, believed by Muslims to be the word of
God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel, and the
Sunnah, the teachings of the Prophet and his works. In addition to
these two primary sources, traditional Sunni Muslims 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
- civil, common, customary, and religious. The mixed legal systems
of a number of countries came about when colonial powers overlaid
their own legal systems upon colonized regions but retained elements
of the colonies' existing legal systems.
Napoleonic Civil Code - A type of civil law, referred to as the
Civil Code or Code Civil des Francais, forms part of the legal
system of France, and underpins the legal systems of Bolivia, Egypt,
Lebanon, Poland, and the US state of Louisiana. The Civil Code was
established under Napoleon I, enacted in 1804, and officially
designated the Code Napoleon in 1807. This legal system combined the
Teutonic civil law tradition of the northern provinces of France
with the Roman law tradition of the southern and eastern regions of
the country. The Civil Code bears similarities in its arrangement to
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. Codes added over the following six years
included civil procedures, commercial law, criminal law and
procedures, and a penal code.
Religious Law - A legal system which stems from the sacred texts of
religious traditions and in most cases professes to cover all
aspects of life as a seamless part of devotional obligations to a
transcendent, imminent, or deep philosophical reality. Implied as
the basis of religious law is the concept of unalterability, because
the word of God cannot be amended or legislated against by judges or
governments. However, a detailed legal system generally requires
human elaboration. 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 religious legal system (see Islamic
Law), and is the sole system of law for 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 and be bound by their rulings. Canon law is not a
divine law as such because it is not found in revelation. It is
viewed instead as human law inspired by the word of God and applying
the demands of that revelation to the actual situation of the
church. 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, dating from the 5th century B.C., contained specific
provisions designed to change the prevailing customary law. Early
Roman law was drawn from custom and statutes; later, during the time
of the empire, emperors asserted their authority as the ultimate
source of law. The basis for Roman laws was the idea that the exact
form - not the intention - of words or of actions produced legal
consequences. It was only in the late 6th century A.D. that a
comprehensive Roman code of laws was published (see Civil Law
above). Roman law served as the basis of law 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 serves as the basis for legal
systems in seven African countries, as well as Guyana, Indonesia,
and Sri Lanka. This law system, which originated in the province of
Holland and expanded throughout the Netherlands (to be replaced by
the French Civil Code in 1809), 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 (written 1619-20, commentary published 1621). The Dutch
historian/lawyer Simon van Leeuwen coined the term "Roman-Dutch law"
in 1652.
Spanish Law - A type of civil law, often referred to as the Spanish
Civil Code, it is the present legal system of Spain and is the basis
of legal systems in 12 countries mostly in Central and South
America, but also in southwestern Europe, northern and western
Africa, and southeastern Asia. The Spanish Civil Code reflects a
complex mixture of customary, Roman, Napoleonic, local, and modern
codified law. The laws of the Visigoth invaders of Spain in the 5th
to 7th centuries had the earliest major influence on Spanish legal
system development. The Christian Reconquest of Spain in the 11th
through 15th centuries witnessed 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. Legal
system development for most of the 19th century concentrated on
formulating a national civil law system, which was finally enacted
in 1889 as the Spanish Civil Code. Several sections of the code have
been revised, the most recent of which are the penal code in 1989
and the judiciary code in 2001. The Spanish Civil Code 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, which is the basis of the
legal system of the United States and that of its island possessions
in the Caribbean and the Pacific. This legal system has several
layers, more possibly than in most other countries, and is due in
part to the division between federal and state law. The United
States was founded not as one nation but as a union of 13 colonies,
each claiming independence from the British Crown. 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 its authority
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. Taken together
with those of the state constitutions, these documents outline the
general structure of the federal and state governments and provide
the rules and limits of power. 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.
Country
Legal system
Afghanistan
based on mixed civil and sharia law; has not accepted
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Akrotiri
the Sovereign Base Area Administration has its own court
system to deal with civil and criminal matters; laws applicable to
the Cypriot population are, as far as possible, the same as the laws
of the Republic of Cyprus
Albania
has a civil law system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
jurisdiction; has accepted jurisdiction of the International
Criminal Court for its citizens
Algeria
socialist, based on French and Islamic law; judicial review
of legislative acts in ad hoc Constitutional Council composed of
various public officials including several Supreme Court justices;
has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
American Samoa
NA
Andorra
based on French and Spanish civil codes; no judicial review
of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Angola
based on Portuguese civil law system and customary law;
modified to accommodate political pluralism and increased use of
free markets; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Anguilla
based on English common law
Antarctica
Antarctica is administered through annual meetings -
known as Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings - which include
consultative member nations, non-consultative member nations,
observer organizations, and expert organizations; decisions from
these meetings are carried out by these member nations (with respect
to their own nationals and operations) in accordance with their own
national laws; more generally, access to the Antarctic Treaty area,
that is to all areas between 60 and 90 degrees south latitude, is
subject to a number of relevant legal instruments and authorization
procedures adopted by the states party to the Antarctic Treaty; note
- US law, including certain criminal offenses by or against US
nationals, such as murder, may apply extraterritorially; some US
laws directly apply to Antarctica; for example, the Antarctic
Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. section 2401 et seq., provides civil and
criminal penalties for the following activities unless authorized by
regulation of statute: the taking of native mammals or birds; the
introduction of nonindigenous plants and animals; entry into
specially protected areas; the discharge or disposal of pollutants;
and the importation into the US of certain items from Antarctica;
violation of the Antarctic Conservation Act carries penalties of up
to $10,000 in fines and one year in prison; the National Science
Foundation and Department of Justice share enforcement
responsibilities; Public Law 95-541, the US Antarctic Conservation
Act of 1978, as amended in 1996, requires expeditions from the US to
Antarctica to notify, in advance, the Office of Oceans, Room 5805,
Department of State, Washington, DC 20520, which reports such plans
to other nations as required by the Antarctic Treaty; for more
information, contact Permit Office, Office of Polar Programs,
National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia 22230; telephone:
(703) 292-8030, or visit its website at www.nsf.gov
Antigua and Barbuda
based on English common law
Argentina
mixture of US and West European legal systems; has not
accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Armenia
based on civil law system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
jurisdiction
Aruba
based on Dutch civil law system with some English common law
influence
Ashmore and Cartier Islands
the laws of the Commonwealth of
Australia and the laws of the Northern Territory of Australia where
applicable apply
Australia
based on English common law; accepts compulsory ICJ
jurisdiction with reservations; accepts International Criminal Court
jurisdiction with conditions
Austria
civil law system with Roman law origin; judicial review of
legislative acts by the Constitutional Court; separate
administrative and civil/penal supreme courts; accepts compulsory
ICJ jurisdiction
Azerbaijan
based on civil law system; has not accepted compulsory
ICJ jurisdiction
Bahamas, The
based on English common law; has not accepted
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Bahrain
based on Islamic law and English common law; has not
accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Bangladesh
based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory
ICJ jurisdiction
Barbados
English common law; no judicial review of legislative acts;
accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations
Belarus
based on civil law system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
jurisdiction
Belgium
based on civil law system influenced by English
constitutional theory; judicial review of legislative acts; accepts
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations
Belize
English law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Benin
based on French civil law and customary law; has not accepted
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Bermuda
English law
Bhutan
based on Indian law and English common law; has not accepted
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Bolivia
based on Spanish law and Napoleonic Code; has not accepted
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; the 2009 Constitution incorporates
indigenous community justice into Bolivia's judicial system
Bosnia and Herzegovina
based on civil law system; has not accepted
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Botswana
based on Roman-Dutch law and local customary law; judicial
review limited to matters of interpretation; accepts compulsory ICJ
jurisdiction with reservations
Bouvet Island
the laws of Norway where applicable apply
Brazil
based on Roman codes; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
jurisdiction
British Indian Ocean Territory
the laws of the UK where applicable
apply
British Virgin Islands
English law
Brunei
based on English common law; for Muslims, Islamic sharia law
supersedes civil law concerning Muslim marriages and inheritance;
has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Bulgaria
civil and criminal law based on Roman law; accepts
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations
Burkina Faso
based on French civil law system and customary law; has
not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Burma
based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
jurisdiction
Burundi
based on German and Belgian civil codes and customary law;
has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Cambodia
primarily a civil law mixture of French-influenced codes
from the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC)
period, royal decrees, and acts of the legislature with influences
of customary law and remnants of communist legal theory; increasing
influence of common law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with
reservations