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A legal system is a set of legal norms and institutions and processes by which those norms are applied, often within a particular jurisdiction or community.[1][2] It may also be referred to as a legal order.[3] The comparative study of legal systems is the subject matter of comparative law, while the definition of legal systems in the abstract has been largely the domain of legal philosophy. Although scholarship has largely focused on national legal systems, many other distinct legal systems exist; for example, in Canada, in addition to the Canadian legal system there are numerous Indigenous legal systems.[4]
The term "legal system" is often used to refer specifically to the laws of a particular nation state. Some countries have a single legal system, while others may have multiple overlapping legal systems arising from distinct sources of sovereign authority, as is often the case in federal states. In addition, different groups within a country are sometimes subject to different legal systems; this is known as legal pluralism. International law is also sometimes classified as a legal system, but this classification is disputed.
Legal systems vary in their sources of law and the extent to which they are based on formal written law; some civil law systems have been based exclusively on statutory law while some customary law systems are based entirely on oral tradition.[5]
Legal systems are classified in many different ways. One popular classification divides them into the civil law tradition, common law tradition, religious law systems, customary law systems, and mixed legal systems.[5] Modern scholarship, however, has moved away from these fixed categories toward an understanding of legal systems as drawing from multiple legal traditions or patterns.
- ^ Luka Burazin (2022). "Legal systems as abstract artifacts". The Artifactual Nature of Law. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 2. ISBN 9781800885929.
- ^ Embley, Judith; Goodchild, Peter; Shephard, Catherine (2020). Legal Systems and Skills: Learn, Develop, Apply (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780198834328.
- ^ Garner, Bryan, ed. (2004). "legal order". Black's Law Dictionary (8th ed.). Thomson/West. p. 914. ISBN 0314151990.
- ^ Borrows, John (2017). "Indigenous Constitutionalism: Pre-Existing Legal Genealogies in Canada". In Oliver, Peter; Macklem, Patrick; Des Rosiers, Nathalie (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the Canadian Constitution. Oxford University Press. pp. 14–15.
- ^ a b "Legal system". CIA Factbook. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2024-10-26.