List of national legal systems

 ( Comparative Law ) 

Scholars of comparative law and economists promoting the legal origins theory usually subdivide civil law into distinct groups:

• Napoleonic Code: in France, the Benelux countries, Italy, Romania, Spain and former colonies of those countries, mainly in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East;
• German civil law: in Germany, Austria, Russia, Switzerland, Estonia, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Portugal and its former colonies, Turkey, and East Asian countries including Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (Republic of China);
• Scandinavian law: in Northern Europe such as Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Sweden. As historically integrated into the Scandinavian cultural sphere, Finland and Iceland also inherited the system, although especially Iceland has its own legal roots. Scandinavian or Nordic civil law exhibit least similar traits with other civil law systems and is sometimes considered a legal system in its own right, despite reception from mainly German civil law.

However, some of these legal systems are often and more correctly said to be of hybrid nature:

• Napoleonic to Germanistic influence (Italian law)

• Germanistic to Napoleonic influence (Swiss law)

A comprehensive list of countries that base their legal system on a codified civil law follows:

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Albania	Based on Napoleonic civil law. The Civil Code of the Republic of Albania, 1991
Angola	Based on Portuguese law.
Argentina	The Spanish legal tradition had a great influence on the Civil Code of Argentina, basically a work of the Argentine jurist Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield, who dedicated five years of his life to this task. The Civil Code came into effect on 1 January 1871. Beyond the influence of the Spanish legal tradition, the Argentine Civil Code was also inspired by the Draft of the Brazilian Civil Code, the of the Spanish Civil Code of 1851, the Napoleonic code and the Chilean Civil Code. The sources of this Civil Code also include various theoretical legal works, mainly of the great French jurists of the 19th century. It was the first Civil Law that consciously adopted as its cornerstone the distinction between i. rights from obligations and ii. real property rights, thus distancing itself from the French model. The Argentine Civil Code was also in effect in Paraguay, as per a Paraguayan law of 1880, until the new Civil Code went into force in 1987. In Argentina, this 1871 Civil Code remained in force until August 2015, when it was replaced by the new Código Civil y Comercial de la Nación. During the second half of the 20th century, the German law legal theory became increasingly influential in Argentina.
Andorra	Courts apply the customary laws of Andorra, supplemented with Roman law and customary Catalan law. Andorra (11/07)
Armenia	Based on Napoleonic Civil law and traditional Armenian law.
Aruba	Based on Dutch civil law
Austria	Based on Roman and Germanic Civil law. The Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (ABGB) of 1811. The ABGB is influenced both by Roman and Austrian law traditions. Comparable to the Napoleonic code, it is based on the ideals of freedom and equality before the law.
Azerbaijan	Based on German, French, Russian, and traditional Azerbaijani Law
Belarus	Based on Germanic Civil law (administrative, criminal codes)
Belgium	The Napoleonic Code is still in use, although it is heavily modified (especially concerning family law)
Benin	Based on Napoleonic Civil law.
Bolivia	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Influenced by Austrian law. The Swiss civil law (Zivilgesetzbuch) was a model for the Law on Obligations of 1978.
Brazil	Based on German, Italian, French and Portuguese law. However, in 2004 the Federal Constitution was amended to grant the Supreme Federal Court authority to issue binding precedents ( súmulas vinculantes) to settle controversies involving constitutional law – a mechanism that echoes the stare decisis principle typically found in common law systems.
Bulgaria	Civil Law system influenced by Germanic and Roman law systems
Burkina Faso	Based on the French civil law
Burundi	Based on the French civil law
Chad	Based on the French civil law
People's Republic of China	Based on Germanic Civil law and France Civil law, also with influences from the Socialist law from Soviet Union
Republic of the Congo	Based on the Napoleonic Civil law.
Democratic Republic of the Congo	Based on Belgian civil law
Cambodia
Cape Verde	Based on Portuguese civil law
Central African Republic	Based on the French civil law system
Chile	The Chilean Civil Code, based on the Napoleonic Civil Law, was also heavily influenced by the Spanish legal tradition. On its turn, the Chilean civil code influenced to a large degree the drafting of the civil codes of other Latin-American states. For instance, the codes of Ecuador (1861) and Colombia (1873) constituted faithful reproductions of the Chilean code, but for very few exceptions. The compiler of the Civil Code of Chile, Venezuelan Andrés Bello, worked for its completion for almost 30 years, using elements, of the Spanish law on the one hand, and of other , especially of the French one, on the other. It is noted that he consulted and used all of the codes that had been issued till then, starting from the era of Justinian. The Civil Code came into effect on 1 January 1857. The influence of the Napoleonic code and the Law of Castile of the Spanish colonial period (especially the Siete Partidas), is great; it is observed however that e.g. in many provisions of property law or contract law, the solutions of the French code civil were put aside in favor of pure Roman law or Castilian law.
Colombia	Based on the Chilean Civil Law. Civil code introduced in 1873. Nearly faithful reproduction of the Chilean civil code
Costa Rica	Based on the Napoleonic Civil Law. First Civil Code (a part of the General Code or Carrillo Code) came into effect in 1841; its text was inspired by the South Peruvian Civil Code of Marshal Andres de Santa Cruz. The present Civil Code went into effect 1 January 1888 and was influenced by the Napoleonic Code and the Spanish Civil Code of 1889 (from its 1851 draft version).
Croatia	Based on the Germanic Civil Law. The Croatian Law system is largely influenced by German and Austrian law systems. It is significantly influenced by the Civil Code of the Austrian Empire from 1811, known in Croatia as "General Civil Law" ("Opći građanski zakon"). OGZ was in force from 1853 to 1946. After the World War II, Croatia becomes a member of the Yugoslav Federation which enacted in 1946 the "Law on immediate voiding of regulations passed before April 6, 1941, and during the enemy occupation" ("Zakon o nevaženju pravnih proposal donesenih prije 6. travnja 1941. i za vrijeme neprijateljske okupacije"). By this law, OGZ was declared invalid as a whole, but the implementation of some of its legal rules was approved. During the post-War era, the Croatian legal system become influenced by elements of the socialist law. Croatian civil law was pushed aside, and it took norms of public law and legal regulation of the social ownership. After Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991, the previous legal system was used as a base for writing new laws. "The Law on Obligations" ("Zakon o obveznim odnosima") was enacted in 2005.Croatian legal history in the European context, Dalibor Čepulo, p. 357 Today, Croatia as a European Union member state implements elements of the EU acquis into its legal system.
Cuba	Influenced by Spanish and American law with large elements of Communist legal theory.
Curaçao	Based on Dutch Civil Law.
Czech Republic	Based on Germanic civil law. Descended from the Civil Code of the Austrian Empire (1811), influenced by German (1939–45) and Soviet (1947/68–89) legal codes during occupation periods, substantially reformed to remove Soviet influence and elements of socialist law after the Velvet Revolution (1989). The new Civil Code of the Czech Republic was introduced in 2014, reestablishing the norms of the ABGB, an reintroducing terms and concepts from it.
Denmark	Based on North Germanic law. Scandinavian-North Germanic civil law.
Dominican Republic	Based on the Napoleonic Code
Ecuador	Based on the Chilean civil law. Civil code introduced in 1861.
El Salvador	Based on law.
Estonia	Based on German civil law.
Finland	Based on Nordic law. target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> The World Factbook
French law	Based on Napoleonic code ( code civil of 1804)
Egypt	Based on Napoleonic civil law and Islamic law.
Equatorial Guinea
Ethiopia
Gabon	Based on the French civil law system
Guinea	Based on French civil law system, customary law, and decree
Guinea-Bissau	Based on Portuguese civil law
Georgia	Based on Napoleonic civil law
German law	Based on Germanic civil law. The Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch of 1900 ("BGB"). The BGB is influenced both by Roman and German law traditions.
Greece	Based on Germanic civil law. The Greek civil code of 1946, highly influenced by traditional Roman law and the German civil code of 1900 (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch); the Greek civil code replaced the Byzantine law in effect in Greece since its independence (Νομική Διάταξη της Ανατολικής Χέρσου Ελλάδος, Legal Provision of Eastern Mainland Greece, November 1821: 'Οι Κοινωνικοί Νόμοι των Αειμνήστων Χριστιανών Αυτοκρατόρων της Ελλάδος μόνοι ισχύουσι κατά το παρόν εις την Ανατολικήν Χέρσον Ελλάδα', 'The Social i.e. Laws of the Dear Departed Christian Emperors of Greece referring alone are in effect at present in Eastern Mainland Greece')
Guatemala	Based on Napoleonic civil law. Guatemala has had three Civil Codes: the first one from 1877, a new one introduced in 1933, and the one currently in force, which was passed in 1963. This Civil Code has suffered some reforms throughout the years, as well as a few derogations relating to areas that have subsequently been regulated by newer laws, such as the Code of Commerce and the Law of the National Registry of Persons. In general, it follows the tradition of the Roman-French system of civil codification. Regarding the theory of 'sources of law' in the Guatemalan legal system, the 'Ley del Organismo Judicial' recognizes 'the law' as the main legal source (in the sense of legislative texts), although it also establishes 'jurisprudence' as a complementary source. Although jurisprudence technically refers to judicial decisions in general, in practice it tends to be confused and identified with the concept of 'legal doctrine', which is a qualified series of identical resolutions in similar cases pronounced by higher courts (the Constitutional Court acting as a 'Tribunal de Amparo', and the Supreme Court acting as a 'Tribunal de Casación') whose theses become binding for lower courts.
Haiti	Based on Napoleonic civil law.
Honduras
Hungary	Based on Germanic, codified Roman law with elements from Napoleonic civil law.
Iceland	Based on North Germanic law. Germanic traditional laws and influenced by Medieval Norwegian and Danish laws.
India (former French and Portuguese colonies)	Based on Portuguese civil law (Goa, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu), and French civil law (Puducherry). Vedic Hindu legal traditions also influenced the legal system in India.
Italy	Based on Napoleonic Code and older ones with German law influence; civil code of 1942 replaced the original one of 1865.
Ivory Coast	Based on French civil law system
Japanese law	Based on Germanic civil law. Japanese civil code of 1895.
Latvia	Based on Napoleonic and German civil law, as it was historically before the Soviet occupation. While general principles of law are prerequisites in making and interpreting the law, case law is also regularly applied to present legal arguments in courts and explain the application of law in similar cases. Civil law largely modeled after the Napoleonic code mixed with strong elements of German civil law. Criminal law retains Russian and German legal traditions, while criminal procedure law has been fully modeled after practice accepted in Western Europe. The civil law of Latvia enacted in 1937.
Lebanon	Based on Napoleonic civil law.
Lithuania	Modeled after Dutch civil law
Louisiana ( U.S.)	Law in the state of Louisiana is based on French and Spanish civil law. Federal courts and 49 states use the legal system based on English common law (see below), which has diverged somewhat since the mid-nineteenth century in that they look to each other's cases for guidance on issues of the first impression and rarely look at contemporary cases on the same issue in the UK or the Commonwealth.
Luxembourg	Based on Napoleonic civil law.
Macau (P.R.China)	Principally based on Portuguese civil law, also influenced by PRC law.
Mexico	Based on Napoleonic civil law."The origins of Mexico's legal system are both ancient and classical, based on the Roman and French legal systems, and the Mexican system shares more in common with other legal systems throughout the world (especially those in Latin America and most of continental Europe) ..."
Mongolia	Based on Germanic civil law.
Montenegro	Based on Napoleonic and German civil law. First: the General Property Code for the Principality of Montenegro of 1888, written by Valtazar Bogišić. Present: the Law on Obligations of 2008.
Mozambique	Based on Portuguese civil law
Netherlands	Based on Napoleonic Code
Nepal	Based on Civil Code, however, the principle of stare decisis is widely practised. The legal system of Nepal has been influenced by British Legal System
Norway	Scandinavian-North Germanic civil law, based on North Germanic law. King Magnus VI the Lawmender unified the regional laws into a single code of law for the whole kingdom in 1274. This was replaced by Christian V's Norwegian Code of 1687.
Panama
Paraguay	The Paraguayan Civil Code in force since 1987 is largely influenced by the Napoleonic Code and the Argentine Code
Peru	Based on civil law system. accepts compulsory International Court of Justice ICJ jurisdiction with despotic and corrupting reservations.
Polish law	The Polish Civil Code in force since 1965
Portuguese law	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code and later by the German civil law
Romanian law	Civil Code came into force in 2011. Based on the Civil Code of Quebec, but also influenced by the Napoleonic Code and other French-inspired codes (such as those of Italy, Spain and Switzerland)
Russia	Civil Law system descendant from Roman Law through /ref>Butler, William E. "Russian law." /ref>
Rwanda	Mixture of Belgian civil law and English common law
São Tomé e Príncipe	Based on Portuguese civil law
Serbia	First: the Civil Code of Principality of Serbia of 1844, written by Jovan Hadžić, was influenced by the Austrian Civil Code (Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch). Present: The Swiss civil law (Zivilgesetzbuch) was a model for the Law on Obligations of 1978.
Slovakia	Descended from the Civil Code of the Austrian Empire (1811), influenced by German (1939–45) and Soviet (1947/68–89) legal codes during occupation periods, substantially reformed to remove Soviet influence and elements of socialist law after the Velvet Revolution (1989).
Slovenia	A Civil Law system influenced mostly by Germanic and Austro-Hungarian law systems
South Korea	Based on the German civil law system. Also largely influenced by Japanese civil law which itself modeled after the German one. Korean Civil Code was introduced 1958 and fully enacted by 1960.
Spain	Influenced by the Napoleonic Code, it also has some elements of Spain's legal tradition, starting with the Siete Partidas, major legislative achievement from the Middle Ages. That body of law remained more or less unchanged until the 19th century when the first civil codes were drafted, merging both the Napoleonic style with the Castilian traditions. Aragon, Balearics, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, and Navarre still have its own private law (the so-called Fuero) which predates and survived the Spanish process of uniformisation, in the Catalans case, its private law is currently fully codificated in the form of the Civil Code of Catalonia.
Suriname	Based on Dutch civil law
Sweden	Scandinavian-North Germanic civil law. Like all Scandinavian legal systems, it is distinguished by its traditional character and for the fact that it did not adopt elements of Roman law. It assimilated very few elements of foreign laws whatsoever. The Napoleonic Code had no influence in the codification of law in Scandinavia. The historical basis of the law of Sweden, just as for all Nordic countries, is North Germanic law. Codification of the law started in Sweden during the 18th century, preceding the codifications of most other European countries. However, neither Sweden nor any other Nordic state created a civil code of the kind of the Code Civil or the BGB.
Switzerland	The Swiss Civil Code of 1908 and 1912 (obligations; fifth book)
Syrian law	Based on Napoleonic civil law.
Taiwan (Republic of China)	Influenced by German Civil Code and Japanese Six Codes. Enacted in 1931.
Timor-Leste	Based on Portuguese civil law
Turkey	Modeled after the Swiss civil law (Zivilgesetzbuch) of 1907.
Ukraine	Based on German civil law and was accepted in 2004.
Uruguay	The basis for its public law is the 1967 Constitution, amended in 1989, 1994, 1996, and 2004. There is a clear separation of functions between the three administrative powers. Constitution of Uruguay Private relationships are governed by the Uruguayan Civil Code. Uruguayan Civil Code
Uzbekistan	Represents an evolution of Soviet Union civil law. The overwhelmingly strong impact of the Communist legal theory is traceable.
Vietnam	Based on Communism, influenced by French civil law.
Venezuela	Based on Napoleonic civil law. Spanish legal traditions also influenced the civil law system in Venezuela.

Common law is practiced in Canada (excluding Quebec law), Australia, New Zealand, most of the United Kingdom (English law, and Northern Ireland), South Africa, Ireland, India (excluding Goa and Puducherry), Pakistan, Hong Kong, the United States (on state and territorial levels excluding Louisiana and Puerto Rico), Bangladesh, and many other places. Several others have adapted the common law system into a mixed system; For example, Nigeria operates largely on a common law system in the southern states and at the federal level, but also incorporates religious law in the northern states.

In the European Union, the Court of Justice takes an approach mixing civil law (based on the treaties) with an attachment to the importance of case law. One of the most fundamental documents to shape common law is the English Magna Carta, which placed limits on the power of the English Kings. It served as a kind of medieval bill of rights for the aristocracy and the judiciary who developed the law.

The main kinds of religious law are sharia in Islam, halakha in Judaism, and canon law in some Christian groups. In some cases these are intended purely as individual moral guidance, whereas in other cases they are intended and may be used as the basis for a country's legal system; the latter was particularly common during the Middle Ages.

Halakha is followed by Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Jews in both ecclesiastical and civil relations. No country is fully governed by halakha, but two Jewish people may decide, because of personal belief, to have a dispute heard by a Jewish court, and be bound by its rulings.

Canon law is the internal ecclesiastical law, or operational policy, governing the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches), the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the individual national churches within the Anglican Communion.Boudinhon, Auguste. "Canon Law." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 9 August 2013 Canon law of the Catholic Church ()Black's Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 771: "Jus canonicum" is the legal system of and canon law made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regulate its external organisation and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics toward the mission of the church.Della Rocca, Manual of Canon Law, p. 3. The canon law of the Catholic Church has all the ordinary elements of a mature legal system: laws, courts, lawyers, judges.Edward N. Peters, "A Catechist's Introduction to Canon Law", CanonLaw.info, accessed June-11-2013 The canon law of the Latin Church was the first modern Western legal system,Berman, Harold J. Law and Revolution, pp. 86, 115. and is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the Western world.Edward N. Peters, CanonLaw.info Home Page, accessed 11 June 2013.Raymond Wacks, Law: A Very Short Introduction, 2nd Ed. (Oxford University Press, 2015) p. 13. while the distinctive traditions of Eastern Catholic canon law govern the 23 Eastern Catholic particular churches sui iuris.

The Islamic legal system, consisting of sharia (Islamic law) and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), is the most widely used religious law system, and one of the three most common legal systems in the world alongside common law and civil law. It is based on both divine law, derived from the hadith of the Quran and Sunnah, and the rulings of ulema (jurists), who use the methods of ijma (consensus), qiyas (analogical deduction), ijtihad (research), and urf (common practice) to derive fatwā (legal opinions). An ulema was required to qualify for an ijazah (Law degree doctorate) at a madrasa (law school or college) before they could issue fatwā. During the Islamic Golden Age, classical Islamic law may have had an influence on the development of common law and several civil law institutions. Sharia law governs a number of Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, though most countries use Sharia law only as a supplement to national law. It can relate to all aspects of civil law, including property rights, contracts, and public law.

• Anarchist law
• Comparative law
• English common law
• International customary law
• Sharia
• Qanun (law)
• Legal pluralism
• Journal of Legal Pluralism
• Rule of law
• Rule According to Higher Law
• Socialist law
• Soviet law
• Tribal sovereignty
• Western law
• Comparative law wiki
• Legal education

Books

• Susan Farran, Esin Örücü, & Seán Patrick Donlan, eds. A study of mixed legal systems: endangered, entrenched, or blended. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014.
• Elina N. Moustaira. Comparative law: university courses (in Greek). Athens: Ant. N. Sakkoulas Publishers, 2004, .
• Elina N. Moustaira. Milestones in the course of comparative law: thesis and antithesis (in Greek). Athens: Ant. N. Sakkoulas Publishers, 2003, .
• Esin Örücü, ed. Mixed legal systems at new frontiers. London: Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2010.
• Vernon Valentine Palmer, Mohamed Y. Mattar, & Anna Kopper, eds. Mixed legal systems, east and west. Farnham–Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2014.

• World Legal Systems, Website of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa
• Factbook list of legal systems