1. Comparative Criminal Justice Systems
LEGAL TRADITIONS
CHAPTER FOUR
Reichel

2. Question How have the concepts of content, context, and time
affected other nations
and legal traditions?

3. Legal Traditions: A Cultural Perspective
The cultural perspective reflects historical attitudes
about the following issues:
Nature of the law .
The role of law in society.
How a legal system should be organized and operated.
The way law is or should be made, applied, or perfected.

4. Indigenous Laws Native laws of persons who originate
from or live in a particular area –
independent of outside influences, i.e.,
aboriginal or native populations.
Indigenous laws have influenced legal systems throughout the world.

5. Socialist Law Tradition
Four Legal Traditions
Common Law Tradition
Civil Law Tradition
Socialist Law Tradition
Islamic Law Tradition

6. Key Characteristics of Four Legal Traditions
Common Law
Feudal practices
Custom
Equity
Civil Law
Roman law
Canon law
Codification
Socialist Law
Russian law
Law as artificial
Marxism-Leninism
Islamic Law
Shari’a
Witnesses and oaths
Extensions

7. and unwritten law distinguished?
Question
How are written law
and unwritten law distinguished?

8. Sample Countries in the Four Families of Law
Civil Law Family: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Spain
Common Law Family: Canada (except Quebec), England, India, Australia, and the U.S.
Socialist Law Family: China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, the former Soviet Union
Sacred Law Family: Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Nigeria

9. Question
Although the United States has its legal tradition in Common Law, the statutes that are created by the legislature resemble
Civil Law.
How do the statutory provisions passed by the U.S. differ from the French or German Civil code systems?

10. Courts and Legal Tradition
Common Law
Courts share in
balancing power
Civil Law
Courts have equal
but separate power
Socialist Law
Courts are subordinate
to the legislature
Islamic Law
Courts and other government branches are subordinate to the Shari’a

11. A Substantive Perspective (The Primary Source of Law)
Common Law
Custom
Civil Law
Written code
(provided by rulers
or legislators)
Socialist Law
Principles of the
socialist revolution
Islamic Law
Divine revelation

12. A Procedural Perspective (Flexibility)
Common Law
Judge-made law and particularization
Civil Law
Variation in reasoning
and definition,
and identification of issues
as either questions
of law or fact.
Socialist Law
Principles of analogy and directions from
higher-level courts
Islamic Law
Mazalim courts and the process of ijtihad

13. Which of the four legal traditions would be easiest to compare?
Question
Which of the four legal traditions would be easiest to compare?

14. Civil and Common Law Systems
CIVIL LAW
Law and procedure governed by codes
Forward looking
Codes based on scholarly analysis and conceptualizations
Supreme Court interprets nuances of the law
COMMON LAW
Law and procedure governed by laws and precedents
Focus on past experiences
Laws reflect the experiences of pratitioners, on a case-by-case basis
Supreme Courts develop law

15. Civil and Common Law Systems (Cont’d)
CIVIL LAW
Legal proceedings must establish the entire truth
Judges are free to find and interpret facts
Little lay participation
No presumption of guilt or innocence.
COMMON LAW
Truth-finding is strictly limited by pleadings and rules of evidence
Rules of evidence limit the fact-finding process
Grand and petit juries play a strong role
There is a presumption of innocence

16. Name a few other examples
Summary Statement
None of these types of law is practiced in its “pure,” or ideal form in today’s world.
Example: Nigeria
Name a few other examples
and explain why?