India

• The Constitution of India, the highest law
• Acts of Parliament and of the state legislatures
• Judgments of the Supreme Court, which bind every court in India
• Personal laws and custom, mostly for marriage, divorce and inheritance

• The Supreme Court of India at the top
• A High Court in each state or group of states
• District courts and other subordinate courts below them

A law degree (a three-year degree after graduation or a five-year integrated course), then enrolment with a State Bar Council. To practise in court, lawyers must also pass the All India Bar Examination (AIBE).

• The Supreme Court has said that some basic features of the Constitution cannot be changed even by Parliament (the 'basic structure' idea from the Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973).
• India has a single judiciary for the whole country, unlike the United States, where federal and state courts are separate.
• Different religious communities can be governed by different personal laws in family matters.
• English is the main language of the higher courts, which makes English and Indian case law easy to compare.

United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, United States

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists India as: Common law, Muslim, Customary. It names the systems in order of importance.

The map colours a country by the first-named system, and shows both civil-law and common-law countries as “mixed”. It is a simplification, and real systems are rarely pure.

Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cook Islands, Dominica, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya.

• Supreme Court of India
• Constitution of India (Legislative Department)
• Bar Council of India

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.