What are legal families?
There are almost two hundred countries and almost two hundred legal systems. But they are not all different. Most of them belong to a small number of big traditions, called legal families. Knowing the family tells you a lot about how a system works, before you learn anything else about it.
The two big families
Common law began in medieval England. The king’s judges travelled the country deciding disputes, and over time their decisions built up into a body of law that applied everywhere, a law “common” to the whole kingdom. In a common-law system, judges’ decisions are a main source of law. When a court has decided a point, other courts must usually follow it. This is called precedent.
Civil law grew from Roman law. In the 1800s, France and then Germany wrote their private law into great codes: the French Civil Code of 1804 and the German Civil Code, which came into force in 1900. In a civil-law system, the main rules are in the codes. A judge starts from the code and applies it to the case.
| Common law | Civil law | |
|---|---|---|
| Main source of law | Statutes and judges' decisions (precedent) | Written codes and statutes |
| Role of earlier decisions | Binding: courts must follow higher courts on the same point | Persuasive: respected and often followed, but not formally binding |
| Role of the judge in a trial | A referee: the two sides present the case | More active: the judge often directs the questioning and the gathering of evidence |
| Style of legal reasoning | From case to case, by analogy | From the code down to the case |
| Where you learn the law | Cases and statutes, often taught through case discussion | Codes and textbooks by scholars, often taught through lectures |
| Typical examples | England, the United States, India, Australia, Canada (except Quebec) | France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Latin America, much of Africa |
These are general patterns. Every country has its own exceptions, and the two families have moved closer together over time.
How the families spread
Legal families travelled with empires and with ideas. The British Empire carried common law to North America, the Indian subcontinent, Australia, New Zealand and much of Africa and the Caribbean. France spread its civil law through Napoleon’s conquests and later its colonies. Spain and Portugal brought their civil law to Latin America. Germany’s code influenced countries that chose their own models, such as Japan. Some countries copied a system by choice, not by conquest.
Mixed systems
Many countries do not fit neatly into one box. Scotland and South Africa have civil-law roots and common-law influence. Quebec in Canada uses civil law for private matters and common law for public law. Israel and the Philippines mix several traditions. We show countries whose systems clearly combine civil law and common law as “mixed”.
Religious and customary law
In some countries, religious law, most often Islamic law, is a leading source of law, especially for family and inheritance. In others, long-standing local custom is important. These sources usually work alongside a civil-law or common-law system, so the real picture is a blend. In India, for example, a common-law system sits beside religious personal laws for family matters.
Why the map is simplified
Scholars disagree about how to classify some countries, and many systems change over time. Our map follows the classification of the University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe project, which lists each country’s systems in order of importance. We colour each country by the first-named system, and use “mixed” when both civil law and common law are named. That makes the map easy to read, but it hides detail. Use it as a starting point, then read the country’s own page.
Want to read more?
- JuriGlobe: World Legal Systems (University of Ottawa), the source of our classification.
- John Henry Merryman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, The Civil Law Tradition, a classic introduction to civil law.
- Konrad Zweigert and Hein Kötz, Introduction to Comparative Law, a standard university textbook on how legal systems compare.
This page is an educational overview. It simplifies on purpose and is not legal advice.
