Legal Systems of the World Compared

Beyond the familiar common law and civil law families stand other complete systems. Sharia derives law from the Quran and prophetic tradition through centuries of jurisprudence, covering commerce as well as worship, applied today in blends from family law alone to comprehensive codes.

Canon law governs the Catholic Church as the oldest continuously operating legal system in the West, complete with courts and procedure. Customary law orders land and kinship across much of Africa alongside state codes.

Socialist law layered party supremacy onto civil codes, and China today mixes civil code, socialist institutions, and party discipline. Most countries are hybrids, and a single international contract can touch three systems in one clause..