HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
|
 9
|
For other uses, see Law (disambiguation).
Lady Justice or Justitia is a personification of the moral force that underlies the legal system. Her blindfold symbolises equality under the law through impartiality towards its subjects, the weighing scales represent the balancing of people\'s interests under the law, and her sword denotes the law\'s force of reason.
LawFrom Old English lagu "something laid down or fixed"; legal comes from Latin legalis, from lex "law", "statute" (Law, Online Etymology Dictionary; Legal, Merriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary) is a system of rules usually enforced through a set of institutions.Robertson, Crimes against humanity, 90; see jurisprudence for extensive debate on what law is; H.L.A Hart argued law is a "system of rules" in his work The Concept of Law (Campbell, The Contribution of Legal Studies, 184); John Austin said law was "the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a sanction" (Bix, John Austin); Ronald Dworkin describes law as an "interpretive concept" to achieve justice (Dworkin, Law\'s Empire, 410); and Joseph Raz argues law is an "authority" to mediate people\'s interests (Raz, The Authority of Law, 3–36). It affects politics, economics and society in numerous ways. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading swaptions on a derivatives market. Property law defines rights and obligations related to transfer and title of personal and real property, for instance, in mortgaging or renting a home. Trust law applies to assets held for investment and financial security, such as pension funds. Tort law allows claims for compensation when someone or their property is injured or harmed. If the harm is criminalised in a penal code, criminal law offers means by which the state prosecutes and punishes the perpetrator. Constitutional law provides a framework for creating laws, protecting people\'s human rights, and electing political representatives. Administrative law relates to the activities of administrative agencies of government. International law regulates affairs between sovereign nation-states in everything from trade to the environment to military action. "The rule of law", wrote the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in 350 BC, "is better than the rule of any individual."n.b. this translation reads, "it is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens" (Aristotle, Politics 3.16).
Legal systems around the world elaborate legal rights and responsibilities in different ways. A basic distinction is made between civil law jurisdictions and systems using common law. Some countries persist in basing their law on religious texts. Scholars investigate the nature of law through many perspectives, including legal history and philosophy, or social sciences such as economics and sociology. The study of law raises important questions about equality, fairness and justice, which are not always simple. "In its majestic equality", said the author Anatole France in 1894, "the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread."The original French is: "la loi, dans un grand souci d\'égalité, interdit aux riches comme aux pauvres de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain" (France, The Red Lilly, Chapter VII). The most important institutions for law are the judiciary, the legislature, the executive, its bureaucracy, the military and police, the legal profession and civil society.
Contents |
Though all legal systems must deal with similar issues, different countries often categorise and name legal subjects in different ways. Quite common is the distinction between "public law" subjects, which relate closely to the state (including constitutional, administrative and criminal law), and "private law" subjects (including contract, tort and property).Although some scholars argue that "the boundaries between public and private law are becoming blurred," and that this distinction has become mere "folklore" (Bergkamp, Liability and Environment, 1–2). In civil law systems, contract and tort fall under a general law of obligations and trusts law is dealt with under statutory regimes or international conventions. International, constitutional and administrative law, criminal law, contract, tort, property law and trusts are regarded as the "traditional core subjects",E.g. in England these seven subjects, with EU law substituted for international law, make up a "qualifying law degree". For criticism, see Peter Birks\' poignant comments attached to a previous version of the Notice to Law Schools. although there are many further disciplines which might be of greater practical importance.
Providing a constitution for public international law, the United Nations was conceived during World War II.
In a global economy, law is globalising too. International law can refer to three things: public international law, private international law or conflict of laws and the law of supranational organisations.
The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, whose principles still have constitutional value
Constitutional and administrative law govern the affairs of the state. Constitutional law concerns both the relationships between the executive, legislature and judiciary and the human rights or civil liberties of individuals against the state. Most jurisdictions, like the United States and France, have a single codified constitution, with a Bill of Rights. A few, like the United Kingdom, have no such document; in those jurisdictions the constitution is composed of statute, case law and convention. A case named Entick v. CarringtonEntick v. Carrington (1765) 19 Howell\'s State Trials 1030 illustrates a constitutional principle deriving from the common law. Mr Entick\'s house was searched and ransacked by Sheriff Carrington. When Mr Entick complained in court, Sheriff Carrington argued that a warrant from a Government minister, the Earl of Halifax, was valid authority. However, there was no written statutory provision or court authority. The leading judge, Lord Camden, stated that,
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property. That right is preserved sacred and incommunicable in all instances, where it has not been taken away or abridged by some public law for the good of the whole… If no excuse can be found or produced, the silence of the books is an authority against the defendant, and the plaintiff must have judgment."
The fundamental constitutional principle, inspired by John Locke,Locke, The Second Treatise, Chapter 9, section 124 is that the individual can do anything but that which is forbidden by law, and the state may do nothing but that which is authorised by law. Administrative law is the chief method for people to hold state bodies to account. People can apply for judicial review of actions or decisions by local councils, public services or government ministries, to ensure that they comply with the law. The first specialist administrative court was the Conseil d\'État set up in 1799, as Napoleon assumed power in France.Auby, Administrative Law in France, 75
Criminal law is the body of law that defines criminal offences and the penalties for convicted offenders. "Criminal law". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Apprehending, charging, and trying suspected offenders is regulated by the law of criminal procedure. "Procedural law". Encyclopaedia Britannica. The paradigm case of a crime lies in the proof, beyond reasonable doubt, that a person is guilty of two things. First, the accused must commit an act which is deemed by society to be criminal, or actus reus (guilty act).Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660 (1962). Second, the accused must have the requisite malicious intent to do a criminal act, or mens rea (guilty mind). However for so called "strict liability" crimes, which include cases like dangerous driving, proof of mens rea is not necessary. An actus reus is enough.e.g. Powell v. Texas, 392 U.S. 514 (1968).
Examples of different kinds of crime include murder, assault, fraud or theft. In exceptional circumstances, defences can exist to some crimes, such as killing in self defence, or pleading insanity. Another example is in the 19th century English case of R v. Dudley and Stephens,Regina v. Dudley and Stephens ([1884] 14 QBD 273 DC) which tested a defence of "necessity". The Mignotte, sailing from Southampton to Sydney, sank. Three crew members and a cabin boy were stranded on a raft. They were starving and the cabin boy was close to death. Driven to extreme hunger, the crew killed and ate the cabin boy. The crew survived and were rescued, but put on trial for murder. They argued it was necessary to kill the cabin boy to preserve their own lives. Lord Coleridge, expressing immense disapproval, ruled, "to preserve one\'s life is generally speaking a duty, but it may be the plainest and the highest duty to sacrifice it." The men were sentenced to hang, but public opinion, especially among seafarers, was outraged and overwhelmingly supportive of the crew\'s right to preserve their own lives. In the end, the Crown commuted their sentences to six months in jail.
Criminal law offences are viewed as offences against not just individual victims, but the community as well. The state, usually with the help of police, takes the lead in prosecution, which is why in common law countries cases are cited as "The People v. …" or "R. (for Rex or Regina) v. …" Also, lay juries are often used to determine the guilt of defendants on points of fact: juries cannot change legal rules. Some developed countries still condone capital punishment for criminal activity, but the normal punishment for a crime will be imprisonment, fines, state supervision (such as probation), or community service. Modern criminal law has been affected considerably by the social sciences, especially with respect to sentencing, legal research, legislation, and rehabilitation. On the international field, 105 countries have signed the enabling treaty for the International Criminal Court, which was established to try people for crimes against humanity.The States Parties to the Rome Statute, International Criminal Court
The Carbolic Smoke Ball offer, which bankrupted the Co. because it could not fulfill the terms it advertised
The concept of a "contract" is based on the Latin phrase pacta sunt servanda (agreements must be kept).Wenberg, Pacta Sunt Servanda, 775 Contracts can be simple everyday buying and selling or complex multi-party agreements. They can be made orally (e.g. buying a newspaper) or in writing (e.g. signing a contract of employment). Sometimes formalities, such as writing the contract down or having it witnessed, are required for the contract to take effect (e.g. when buying a house).e.g. In England, s.52 Law of Property Act 1925
In common law jurisdictions, there are three key elements to the creation of a contract. These are offer and acceptance, consideration and an intention to create legal relations. For example, in Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball CompanyCarlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company [1893] 1 QB 256. See a full law report from Justis a medical firm advertised that its new wonder drug, the smokeball, would cure people\'s flu, and if it did not, the buyers would get £100. Many people sued for their £100 when the drug did not work. Fearing bankruptcy, Carbolic argued the advert was not to be taken as a serious, legally binding offer. It was an invitation to treat, mere puff, a gimmick. But the court of appeal held that to a reasonable man Carbolic had made a serious offer. People had given good consideration for it by going to the "distinct inconvenience" of using a faulty product. "Read the advertisement how you will, and twist it about as you will", said Lord Justice Lindley, "here is a distinct promise expressed in language which is perfectly unmistakable".
"Consideration" means all parties to a contract must exchange something of value to be able to enforce it. Some common law systems, like Australia, are moving away from consideration as a requirement for a contract. The concept of estoppel or culpa in contrahendo can be used to create obligations during pre-contractual negotiations.Austotel v. Franklins (1989) 16 NSWLR 582 In civil law jurisdictions, consideration is not a requirement for a contract at all.e.g. In Germany, § 311 Abs. II BGB In France, an ordinary contract is said to form simply on the basis of a "meeting of the minds" or a "concurrence of wills". Germany has a special approach to contracts, which ties into property law. Their \'abstraction principle\' (Abstraktionsprinzip) means that the personal obligation of contract forms separately from the title of property being conferred. When contracts are invalidated for some reason (e.g. a car buyer is so drunk that he lacks legal capacity to contract)§ 105 Abs. II BGB the contractual obligation to pay can be invalidated separately from the proprietary title of the car. Unjust enrichment law, rather than contract law, is then used to restore title to the rightful owner.Smith, The Structure of Unjust Enrichment Law, 1037
The "McLibel" two were involved in the longest running case in UK history for publishing a pamphlet criticising McDonald\'s restaurants
Torts, sometimes called delicts, are civil wrongs. To have acted tortiously, one must have breached a duty to another person, or infringed some pre-existing legal right. A simple example might be accidentally hitting someone with a cricket ball.Bolton v. Stone [1951] A.C. 850 Under negligence law, the most common form of tort, the injured party could potentially claim compensation for his injuries from the party responsible. The principles of negligence are illustrated by Donoghue v. Stevenson.Donoghue v. Stevenson ([1932] A.C. 532, 1932 S.C. (H.L.) 31, [1932] All ER Rep 1). See the original text of the case in UK Law Online. A friend of Mrs Donoghue ordered an opaque bottle of ginger beer (intended for the consumption of Mrs Donoghue) in a café in Paisley. Having consumed half of it, Mrs Donoghue poured the remainder into a tumbler. The decomposing remains of a snail floated out. She claimed to have suffered from shock, fell ill with gastroenteritis and sued the manufacturer for carelessly allowing the drink to be contaminated. The House of Lords decided that the manufacturer was liable for Mrs Donoghue\'s illness. The case was furtherly complicated in that, the contract of the purchase was between Mrs Donoghue\'s friend, as the buyer of the ginger beer, rather than Mrs Donoghue herself. Lord Atkin took a distinctly moral approach, and said,
"The liability for negligence… is no doubt based upon a general public sentiment of moral wrongdoing for which the offender must pay… The rule that you are to love your neighbour becomes in law, you must not injure your neighbour; and the lawyer\'s question, Who is my neighbour? receives a restricted reply. You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour."Donoghue v. Stevenson [1932] A.C. 532, 580
This became the basis for the four principles of negligence; (1) Mr Stevenson owed Mrs Donoghue a duty of care to provide safe drinks (2) he breached his duty of care (3) the harm would not have occurred but for his breach and (4) his act was the proximate cause, or not too remote a consequence, of her harm. Another example of tort might be a neighbour making excessively loud noises with machinery on his property.Sturges v. Bridgman (1879) 11 Ch D 852 Under a nuisance claim the noise could be stopped. Torts can also involve intentional acts, such as assault, battery or trespass. A better known tort is defamation, which occurs, for example, when a newspaper makes unsupportable allegations that damage a politician\'s reputation.e.g. concerning a British politician and the Iraq War, Galloway v. Telegraph Group Ltd [2004] EWHC 2786 More infamous are economic torts, which form the basis of labour law in some countries by making trade unions liable for strikes,Taff Vale Railway Co. v. Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants [1901] AC 426 when statute does not provide immunity.In the UK, Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992; c.f. in the U.S., National Labor Relations Act
A painting of the South Sea Bubble, one of the world\'s first ever speculations and crashes, led to strict regulation on share trading
Property law governs everything that people call \'theirs\'. Real property, sometimes called \'real estate\' refers to ownership of land and things attached to it.Hunter v. Canary Wharf Ltd. (1997) 2 AllER 426. Personal property, refers to everything else; movable objects, such as computers, cars, jewelry, and sandwiches, or intangible rights, such as stocks and shares. A right in rem is a right to a specific piece of property, contrasting to a right in personam which allows compensation for a loss, but not a particular thing back. Land law forms the basis for most kinds of property law, and is the most complex. It concerns mortgages, rental agreements, licences, covenants, easements and the statutory systems for land registration. Regulations on the use of personal property fall under intellectual property, company law, trusts and commercial law. An example of a basic case of most property law is Armory v. Delamirie.Armory v. Delamirie (1722) 93 ER 664, 1 Strange 505 A chimney sweep\'s boy found a jewel encrusted with precious stones. He took it to a goldsmith to have it valued. The goldsmith\'s apprentice looked at it, sneakily removed the stones, told the boy it was worth three halfpence and that he would buy it. The boy said he would prefer the jewel back, so the apprentice gave it to him, but without the stones. The boy sued the goldsmith for his apprentice\'s attempt to cheat him. Lord Chief Justice Pratt ruled that even though the boy could not be said to own the jewel, he should be considered the rightful keeper until the original owner is found. In fact the apprentice and the boy both had a right of possession in the jewel (a technical concept, meaning evidence that something could belong to someone), but the boy\'s possessory interest was considered better, because it could be shown to be first in time. Physical possession is nine tenths of the law, but not all.
This case is used to support the view of property in common law jurisdictions, that person who can show the best claim to a piece of property, against any contesting party, is the owner.P. Matthews, The Man of Property, 251–274 By contrast, the classic civil law approach to property, propounded by Friedrich Carl von Savigny, is that it is a right good against the world. Obligations, like contracts and torts are conceptualised as rights good between individuals.Savigny. Das Recht des Besitzes, 25 The idea of property raises many further philosophical and political issues. The English philosopher John Locke argued that our "lives, liberties and estates" are our property because we own our bodies and mix our labour with our surroundings.Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government, Chapter 9, section 123. The idea of privately owned property has been contentious in the view of a number of thinkers. Pierre Proudhon, an anarchist thinker, argued in 1840 that "property is theft".Proudhon, What is Property?, Chapter I (Method Pursued in this Book – The Idea of a Revolution)
The Court of Chancery, London, early 19th century
Equity is a body of rules that developed in England separately from the "common law". The common law was administered by judges. The Lord Chancellor on the other hand, as the King\'s keeper of conscience, could overrule the judge made law if he thought it equitable to do so.McGhee, Snell\'s Equity, 7 This meant equity came to operate more through principles than rigid rules. For instance, whereas neither the common law nor civil law systems allow people to split the ownership from the control of one piece of property, equity allows this through an arrangement known as a \'trust\'. \'Trustees\' control property, whereas the \'beneficial\' (or \'equitable\') ownership of trust property is held by people known as \'beneficiaries\'. Trustees owe duties to their beneficiaries to take good care of the entrusted property.c.f. Bristol and West Building Society v. Mothew [1998] Ch 1 In the early case of Keech v. SandfordKeech v. Sandford (1726) Sel Cas. Ch.61 a child had inherited the lease on a market in Romford, London. Mr Sandford was entrusted to look after this property until the child matured. But before then, the lease expired. The landlord had (apparently) told Mr Sandford that he did not want the child to have the renewed lease. Yet the landlord was happy (apparently) to give Mr Sandford the opportunity of the lease instead. Mr Sandford took it. When the child (now Mr Keech) grew up, he sued Mr Sandford for the profit that he had been making by getting the market\'s lease. Mr Sandford was meant to be trusted, but he put himself in a position of conflict of interest. The Lord Chancellor, Lord King, agreed and ordered Mr Sandford should disgorge his profits. He wrote,
"I very well see, if a trustee, on the refusal to renew, might have a lease to himself few trust-estates would be renewed… This may seem very hard, that the trustee is the only person of all mankind who might not have the lease; but it is very proper that the rule should be strictly pursued and not at all relaxed."Keech v. Sandford (1726) Sel Cas. Ch.61
Of course, Lord King LC was worried that trustees might exploit opportunities to use trust property for themselves instead of looking after it. Business speculators using trusts had just recently caused a stock market crash. Strict duties for trustees made their way into company law and were applied to directors and chief executive officers. Another example of a trustee\'s duty might be to invest property wisely or sell it.Nestle v. National Westminster Bank plc [1993] 1 WLR 1260 This is especially the case for pension funds, the most important form of trust, where investors are trustees for people\'s savings until retirement. But trusts can also be set up for charitable purposes, famous examples being the British Museum or the Rockefeller Foundation.
Law spreads far beyond the core subjects into virtually every area of life. Three categories are presented for convenience, though the subjects intertwine and flow into one another.
A trade union protest by UNISON while on strike
The New York Stock Exchange trading floor
The New York Stock Exchange trading floor after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, before tougher banking regulation was introduced
In general, legal systems around the world can be split between civil law jurisdictions, on the one hand, and systems using common law and equity, on the other. The term civil law, referring to a legal system, should not be confused with civil law as a group of legal subjects, as distinguished from criminal law or public law. A third type of legal system — still accepted by some countries in part, or even in whole — is religious law, based on scriptures and interpretations thereof. The specific system that a country follows is often determined by its history, its connection with countries abroad, and its adherence to international standards. The sources that jurisdictions recognise as authoritatively binding are the defining features of legal systems. Yet classification of different systems is a matter of form rather than substance, since similar rules often prevail.
First page of the 1804 edition of the Napoleonic Code
Civil law is the legal system used in most countries around the world today. In civil law the sources recognised as authoritative are, primarily, legislation – especially codifications in constitutions or statutes passed by government – and, secondarily, custom.Civil law jurisdictions recognise custom as "the other source of law"; hence, scholars tend to divide the civil law into the broad categories of "written law" (ius scriptum) or legislation, and "unwritten law" (ius non scriptum) or custom. Yet they tend to dismiss custom as being of slight importance compared to legislation (Georgiadis, General Principles of Civil Law, 19; Washofsky, Taking Precedent Seriously, 7). Codifications date back millennia, with one early example being the ancient Babylonian Codex Hammurabi, but modern civil law systems essentially derive from the legal practice of the Roman Empire, whose texts were rediscovered in medieval Europe. Roman law in the days of the Roman Republic and Empire was heavily procedural, and there was no professional legal class.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 18 Instead a lay person, iudex, was chosen to adjudicate. Precedents were not reported, so any case law that developed was disguised and almost unrecognised.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 21 Each case was to be decided afresh from the laws of the state, which mirrors the (theoretical) unimportance of judges\' decisions for future cases in civil law systems today. During the 6th century AD in the Eastern Roman Empire, the Emperor Justinian codified and consolidated the laws that had existed in Rome, so that what remained was one-twentieth of the mass of legal texts from before.Stein, Roman Law in European History, 32 This became known as the Corpus Juris Civilis. As one legal historian wrote, "Justinian consciously looked back to the golden age of Roman law and aimed to restore it to the peak it had reached three centuries before."Stein, Roman Law in European History, 35 Western Europe, meanwhile, slowly slipped into the Dark Ages, and it was not until the 11th century that scholars in the University of Bologna rediscovered the texts and used them to interpret their own laws.Stein, Roman Law in European History, 43 Civil law codifications based closely on Roman law, alongside some influences from religious laws such as Canon law and Islamic law,Badr, Gamal Moursi (Spring, 1978), "Islamic Law: Its Relation to Other Legal Systems", The American Journal of Comparative Law 26 (2 [Proceedings of an International Conference on Comparative Law, Salt Lake City, Utah, February 24-25, 1977]): 187-198 [196-8] continued to spread throughout Europe until the Enlightenment; then, in the 19th century, both France, with the Code Civil, and Germany, with the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, modernised their legal codes. Both these codes influenced heavily not only the law systems of the countries in continental Europe (e.g. Greece), but also the Japanese and Korean legal traditions.Hatzis, The Short-Lived Influence of the Napoleonic Civil Code in Greece, 253–263
* Demirgüç-Kunt -Levine, Financial Structures and Economic Growth, 204 Today countries that have civil law systems range from Russia and China to most of Central and Latin America.The World Factbook — Field Listing – Legal system, CIA
King John of England signs Magna Carta
Common law and equity are systems of law whose special distinction is the doctrine of precedent, or stare decisis (Latin for "to stand by decisions"). Alongside this "judge-made law", common law systems always have governments who pass new laws and statutes. But these are not put into a codified form. Common law comes from England and was inherited by almost every country that once belonged to the British Empire, with the exceptions of Malta, Scotland, the U.S. state of Louisiana and the Canadian province of Quebec. Common law had its beginnings in medieval England, influenced by the Norman conquest of England which introduced legal concepts and institutions from the Norman and Islamic laws.Makdisi, John A. (June 1999), "The Islamic Origins of the Common Law", North Carolina Law Review 77 (5): 1635-1739 Common law further developed when the English monarchy had been weakened by the enormous cost of fighting for control over large parts of France. King John had been forced by his barons to sign a document limiting his authority to pass laws. This "great charter" or Magna Carta of 1215 also required that the King\'s entourage of judges hold their courts and judgments at "a certain place" rather than dispensing autocratic justice in unpredictable places about the country.Magna Carta, Fordham University A concentrated and elite group of judges acquired a dominant role in law-making under this system, and compared to its European counterparts the English judiciary became highly centralised. In 1297, for instance, while the highest court in France had fifty-one judges, the English Court of Common Pleas had five.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 4 This powerful and tight-knit judiciary gave rise to a rigid and inflexible system of common law.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 3 As a result, as time went on, increasing numbers of citizens petitioned the King to override the common law, and on the King\'s behalf the Lord Chancellor gave judgment to do what was equitable in a case. From the time of Sir Thomas More, the first lawyer to be appointed as Lord Chancellor, a systematic body of equity grew up alongside the rigid common law, and developed its own Court of Chancery. At first, equity was often criticised as erratic, that it "varies like the Chancellor\'s foot". But over time it developed solid principles, especially under Lord Eldon.Gee v. Pritchard (1818) 2 Swans. 402, 414 In the 19th century the two systems were fused into one another. In developing the common law and equity, academic authors have always played an important part. William Blackstone, from around 1760, was the first scholar to describe and teach it.Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book the First – Chapter the First But merely in describing, scholars who sought explanations and underlying structures slowly changed the way the law actually worked.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 17
Religious law refers to the notion that the word of God is law. Examples include the Jewish Halakha and Islamic Sharia, both of which mean the "path to follow". Christian canon law also survives in some church communities. The implication of religion for law is unalterability, because the word of God cannot be amended or legislated against by judges or governments. However religion never provides a thorough and detailed legal system. For instance, the Quran has some law, and it acts merely as a source of further law through interpretation,Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 159 Qiyas (reasoning by analogy), Ijma (consensus) and precedent. This is mainly contained in a body of law and jurisprudence known as Sharia and Fiqh respectively, which had a fairly significant influence on the development of common law, as well as some influence on civil law. Another example is the Torah or Old Testament, in the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses. This contains the basic code of Jewish law, which some Israeli communities choose to use. The Halakha is a code of Jewish law which summarises some of the Talmud\'s interpretations. Nevertheless, Israeli law allows litigants to use religious laws only if they choose. Canon law is only in use by members of the clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion.
Until the 18th century, Sharia law was practiced throughout the Muslim world in a non-codified form, with the Ottoman Empire\'s Mecelle code in the 19th century being first attempt at codifying elements of Sharia law. Since the mid-1940s, efforts have been made, in country after country, to bring Sharia law more into line with modern conditions and conceptions.Anderson, Law Reform in the Middle East, 43
* Giannoulatos, Islam, 274–275 In modern times, Sharia is merely an optional supplement to the civil or common law of most countries, though Saudi Arabia and Iran\'s whole legal systems source their law on a codified form of Sharia. During the last few decades, one of the fundamental features of the movement of Islamic resurgence has been the call to restore the Sharia, which has generated a vast amount of literature and affected world politics.Hallaq, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law, 1
Though the legal traditions described have resulted in a number of common traits across jurisdictions, each sovereign entity can have unique aspects. The lists below link to articles on individual jurisdictions, organised by geography.
| Law of Africa | |
|---|---|
| Sovereign states | Algeria · Angola · Benin · Botswana · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cameroon · Cape Verde · Central African Republic · Chad · Comoros · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Republic of the Congo · Côte d\'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) · Djibouti · Egypt · Equatorial Guinea · Eritrea · Ethiopia · Gabon · The Gambia · Ghana · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Kenya · Lesotho · Liberia · Libya · Madagascar · Malawi · Mali · Mauritania · Mauritius · Morocco · Mozambique · Namibia · Niger · Nigeria · Rwanda · Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic · São Tomé and Príncipe · Senegal · Seychelles · Sierra Leone · Somalia · South Africa · Sudan · Swaziland · Tanzania · Togo · Tunisia · Uganda · Zambia · Zimbabwe |
| Dependencies, autonomies and other territories | Canary Islands (Spain) · Ceuta (Spain) · Madeira (Portugal) · Mayotte (France) · Melilla (Spain) · Puntland · Réunion (France) · St. Helena (UK) · Socotra (Yemen) · Somaliland · South Sudan · Western Sahara · Zanzibar (Tanzania) |
| Law of North America | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sovereign states | Antigua and Barbuda · Bahamas · Barbados · Belize · Canada · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominica · Dominican Republic · El Salvador · Grenada · Guatemala · Haiti · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · Nicaragua · Panama* · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Trinidad and Tobago* · United States |  |
| Dependencies and other territories | -->Anguilla · Aruba* · Bermuda · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Greenland · Guadeloupe · Martinique · Montserrat · Navassa Island · Netherlands Antilles* · Puerto Rico · Saint Barthélemy · Saint Martin · Saint Pierre and Miquelon · Turks and Caicos Islands · U. S. Virgin Islands | |
| * Territories also in or commonly reckoned elsewhere in the Americas (South America). | ||
