The Legal Systems of The World

A PANORAMA of the
LEGAL SYSTEMS of the

WORLD
Introduction to Law by Rufus Rodriguez
TWO CLASSIFICATIONS of
Well-Developed Legal Systems
First: Based on ethnic, cultural group
of people
Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Hebrew,
Chinese, Hindu, Greek, Roman, Celtic,
Slavic, Germanic, Japanese and Anglo-
American
Many of these are now gone (Egyptian and
Mesopotamian)
What remains are the Anglo-American and the
Roman
Hindi survives by tolerance
Chinese alone survives in independence
Two Classifications of Well-
Developed Legal Systems
(cont...)
Second: Based on religion
Catholic legal system (Papal/Canon Law),
Mohammedan legal system
Catholic legal system exists as the law for the
members of the universal Roman Catholic
Church.
Mohammendan system governs the spiritual
life of its members but has been incorporated
by many Islamic states into their official legal
system.

EGYPTIAN Legal System
Traced back to beyond 4000 BC
Found at the Valley of the Nile
Came into contact with all the great
primitive race-stocks of Africa, Asia and
Europe
Ended during the reign of Cleopatra
Eight century before Christ by the civil war
and then by conquests of invaders from
Assyria, Persia and Greece. The Roman
Caezars struck the final blow to Egypts
political independence.
Key Features of
the Egyptian Legal System
The monarch (Pharaoh) was
constitutionally the sole supreme ruler.
He ruled according to law; he was its
autocratic spokesman.
In theory, every land and every man (alive
or dead) belonged to the monarch.
No man could be buried without the kings
assent.
Monarch exercises the JUDICIAL,
ADMINISTRATIVE, and LEGISLATIVE
functions.
Key Features of
(cont...)
How was legislation done?
The monarch made the law sole legislator.
The earliest human lawgiver in Egyptian tradition
was Menes (3200 BC)
How was justice administered?
The king and the supreme judges dispense
justice through the central royal court (CRC).
CRC headed by the kings supreme justice, assisted by
30 supreme judges.
Originally, the office of the prime minister and of chief
judge were separate, but they were merged and the title
chief judge signified always the kings chief minister.
Provincial courts dispensed justice too.
Presided by administrative officials, under the Central
Court.

Some Insights on
King Thutmose IIIs instruction to
Bekhmire when appointed chief judge:
It is an abomination of god to show
partiality. This is the teaching: thou shalt
act alike to all, shalt regard him who is
known to thee like him who is unknown to
thee, and him who is near to... Like him
who is far... An official who does this then
shall flourish greatly in the place.
Some Insights on
(con,t...)
Ramse IIs parameter of good
leadership:
I planted the whole land with trees and
green things, and made the people to
dwell in their shade. I made the land safe,
so that a lone woman could go on her way
freely, and none would molest her. I
rescued then humble from their
oppressors. I made every man safe in his
home. I preserved the lives of those who
sought my court justice. The people were
well content under my rule.
MESOPOTAMIAN Legal
System
Emerged by 4000 years before Christ
Mesopotamia was the land of the two
rivers: Euphrates and Tigris
Its civilization was centered about
Babylon in the southern portion known
as Chaldea and in Assyria in the north
It lost its independence under the
Persians about 500 years before
Christ
It disappeared under the Greeks about
100 years before Christ
Key Features of the
Mesopotamian Legal System
The king was the foundation of justice.
The king was the lawgiver, but he
received the law from divine guidance
or the deity.
The sun-god Shamash was the god of
Law, whose children were Justice and
Right.
Sumerian Urukagina of Lagash first
historically known Mesopotamian
lawgiver.

Key Features of the
(cont.)
King Hammurabi (about 2100 BC)
deputized the administration of justice to
the royal priest class in the temples to a
body of royal secular judges, sitting
commonly at the great gate and market
place of the city.
Code of Hammurabi refers back to King
Hammurabi. This is the earliest known
national code in the world; it is the most
complete, authentic and most advanced of
ancient codes.
The Code of Hammurabi covers the whole
scope of law: crime, family, property,
commerce. It reflects agricultural and trading
economy.
Key Features of the
(cont.)
Different Codes and their Insights on Divorce:
Code of Hammurabi
Code of Assur
Deuteronomy
(Please, see p. 33. Introduction to Law by Rufus
Rodriguez)
It was during the time of King Hammurabi
where we find the earliest promissory note
(PN) it the oldest negotiable instrument in
the world. This manifest that at this time, we
can already find advanced ideas in
commercial law.
End of the Mesopotamian
Legal System
It was during the time of Belshazzar, the
last native ruler of Babylonia, when the
Mesopotamian legal system was
supplanted.
Belshazzar lost his empire to Cyrus, king of
the new Persian nation.
Later, new invading races followed and by a
century before Christ, the Greek conquerors
supplanted the Mesopotamian legal system.
Hammurabis pillar-code was buried under
the rubbles of ages, until 2000 years later
when French explorer De Morgan found it.
HEBREW Legal System
Note: After the Egyptian and Mesopotamian legal systems,
the next oldest legal system is the Chinese legal system.
However, we are going to discuss the Hebrew Legal System
because of its proximate affinity with the Mesopotamian Legal
System.
The early Hebrew civilization was
originally NOMADIC and PASTORAL,
then AGRICULTURAL and only later
COMMERCIAL.
HISTORY of the
Hebrew Legal System
In Egypt and in Babylon, the Hebrew
tribes were a subject people.
About 2100 BC, the patriarch Abraham
saw King Hammurabi as an enemy in
battle.
A thousand years later, Abraham and
Aaron appeared in the Court of Pharaoh
(King Rameses II, 1300 BC), asking for
their peoples freedom from bondage.
But it was during the time of the Hebrew
judge DANIEL that the Hebrew Legal
System developed.
HISTORY of the
Hebrew Legal System (cont.)
FIVE well-defined STAGES of the
Hebrew Legal System during
DANIELs time:
1) MOSAIC PERIOD
2) CLASSIC PERIOD
3) TALMUDIC PERIOD
4) MEDIEVAL PERIOD
5) NATIONALIST PERIOD
MOSAIC PERIOD
Hebrew government was a THEOCRACY
Authority and power were ascribed to God
Theos = god and Kratein = to rule
Hebrews attributed their laws to divine lawgiver.
Moses was said to have gone up Mount Sinai to
receive from YAHWEH the Ten Commandments.
How was justice dispensed?
At first, personally dispensed by the tribal leader,
then as tribal population multiplied and political
life complex, justice was dispensed through an
organized hierarchy of courts.
In Exodus, Moses delegated justice to
professional judges.
Solomon was one example of a judge.
MOSAIC PERIOD (cont.)
From this period comes:
Pentateuch (Five Books) made up of
narratives and codes, such as Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Dueteronomy.
Pentateuch is also known as TORAH or
Ancient Law.
CLASSIC PERIOD
Formed by the legal practice developing
between 300 BC and AD 200.
In theory, the government was still a
THEOCRACY.
Where was the FUNCTION of JUSTICE
vested?
Ceased to be a ROYAL ONE.
The Jewish people at this time had come under
the suzerainty of the Persian, Greek and Roman
rulers.
However, in the Jewish internal government,
supreme authority (religious, social, political,
legislative, and judiciary) was vested in a Senate
(Great Synhedrion Greek for Assembly and
Bet din hagadol in Hebrew or high council). It
consisted of 71 members.
CLASSIC PERIOD (cont.)
Under the Roman sovereignty, the
Jewish people for two centuries
preserved the administration of their own
law.
Their ruler, Herod, was still called king.
However, the convulsive political rebellions of
the Jews, after the time of Jesus, led the
Roman Emperor Vespasian to take rigorous
revenge. Jerusalem fell in AD 70 under the
assault of Titus, Vespasians son.
With the fall of Jerusalem, the Roman soldiers
brought to Rome the Ark of the Law, containing the
Scroll of the Law and the Seven Branched
Candlestick.
Hebrew self-government ended, and their legal
system ceased to prevail.
TALMUDIC PERIOD
AD 200 to AD 500
Formed by the Talmud, i.e. reports of all
recorded cases and commentators since
about 300 BC, digested in two
authoritative collections:
The Mishnah or the codified text (AD 200
in New Hebrew script)
Gemara or commentary (about AD 300-
500, compiled in Aramaic script.
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Began at the dispersion of the Jewish
nation, culminating about AD 500 and
extended over the next thousand years.
Here, learned rabbi wrote treatises (in
Hebrew or Arabic), compiled codes, and
thus perpetuated the traditions of the
law.
Maimonides is one of these rabbis; he lived
in North Africa in 1400s.
By this means, the common customs of
religious and family life and commercial
practice were kept alive, though the race
was scattered in many countries.
NATIONALIST PERIOD
From AD 1600
Nationalism in Europe amalgamated
all races who lived within given
territories and emphasized national
languages.
During this period, the Talmud was
critically studied and translated into
the various national language.
CHINESE Legal System
Third earliest legal system of the world in
origin (before 2500 BC)
The only one that has survived continuously
to date a period of more than 4000 years
Note: The Chinese were described as the
worlds greatest pacifists. They were
patriotically exclusive and had never willingly
admitted strangers. They were contented with
themselves, their ancestors, their history, and
with their place in the world. They survived as
a people due to their strong clan and family
structure and their consequent conservatism.
(cont.)
CONFUCIUS Chinas chief justice and
one of the worlds wisest men.
About 500 BC
His philosophy, which is not a religion, covers
the whole range of personal morality and
practical politics. And for 2400 years, it
pervades now Chinese life.
His philosophy rests on a passionate yet
rational respect for those conventions which
experience of the past has verified.
He teaches filial piety, which is the skillful
carrying out of the wishes of our forefathers.
(cont.)
GEORGE PADEOUXs theory of
government and justice underlying the
Chinese legal system:
Since the dawn of its history, China has
believed in the existence of a natural order of
things, or law of Nature, including all parts of
the universe and adjusting them
harmoniously with one another. This order of
Nature was not made; it exists and is its own
reason for existence. Humanity is a part of it,
and must conform to it. And as the elements
in this order of nature are interdependent,
whatever affects one element reacts on the
other also
(cont.)
CONSEQUENCE of Padeouxs theory:
1) This natural law does not yield precedence to
positive law. Positive law ought to confine itself to
translating the natural law into written formulas. If
this translation is correct, the written law is good
and binding; but if not correct, then the written
law is not binding.
2) A marked contrast of the Confucian political
philosophy with Occidental systems is that its
fundamental maxim is emphatically a
government of men, not law.
The Chinese philosophy of government is that a good
ruler makes a happy people.
Chinese political science relies on the wisdom and
discretion of the ruler rather than on the text of laws.
CHINESE Legal System (cont.)

LEGISTS a school of philosophers who arose after
Confucius (about 200 BC).
Repudiated the doctrine of a government of men in favor of
government of laws.
But its dominance was brief and Confucius principle returned
and was enthroned in Chinese government and firmly
maintained that place during the next 2000 years.
3) Another notable consequence of the
Confucian philosophy is that conciliation and
mutual adjustment are looked upon as ideal
elements of justice.
4) The subordinate part played by the letter of the
law, and the legislation as such. The ruler should
frame the laws to voice the vast sentiments and
wants of the people not to impose his personal
will upon an unwilling people.

LIST OF CODES:
Chow Li or Regulations of Chow (1100
BC) earliest code whose text is now
extant. Later, it was said to have been
burnt during the Burning of the Books.
Tang Dynastys code of 500 articles (AD
640)
Tartar emperor Timur (grandson of Kublai
Khan, about AD 1320) promulgated a
code of 2500 articles.
NOTE: None of these altered traditional laws
and customs of the Chinese.

Kublai Khan introduced around AD 1269 an
alphabet and the laws above were
promulgated in this alphabet.
Ming Dynasty (about AD 1400) minister
Young Lo framed a new general code
Manchu Dynasty Ta Tsing Lu Li or Code of
Tsing became law about AD 1650 and
endured until the revolution of AD 1912.
This work consists of:
First: LU (The Code Proper) the text which never
changes
Second: LI consists of the annual edicts and judicial
decisions, which interpreted the LU, made them flexible
and adapted them to progress, like the Common Law.
HINDU Legal System
Introductory:
During the last 3000 years, India had been
entered and dominated by alien races:
Indo Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Turks, Mongols,
English
After WWII, India was granted her independence by
England
Persians and Greeks took booty and left no traces
Turks and Mongols brought Mohammedan law
English brought unity, liberty, and honest administration,
but English law in India is mainly public law, preserving in
private law the various native customs
Indo-Aryans or Hindus (the first to come to India) are the
only race that developed a native system of law.
Two Branches of Hindu
System
(A) BUDDHISM
(B) BRAHMANISM (or Hinduism)

Both are religion and law.
(A) BUDDHISM
Simply means Enlightenment
Founded by Gautama Buddha, born in Nepal
between 600 and 500 BC.
Buddhas basic teaching is the compet of
Nirvana, which means roughly the peace of
mind and soul that comes to man after he
has overcome three cravings: those for
riches, sensual enjoyment and immortality.
In India, between AD 400 and 700, a
complete social and religious reaction took
place. Buddhism was eradicated by
Brahmanistic persecution (this is
questionable).
(B) BRAHMANISM
Began in the days of the first Aryan
invaders as a kind of nature worship; it
developed into what is certainly the most
complicated theology known to mankind.
It holds that one supreme being,
Brahma, exists in several or
manifestations and is the universal spirit
which pervades everything.
The typical law-book of the Brahman-
Hindi system is the famous Laws of
Manu.
The most marked peculiarity of this
system was the Brahman-Hindu rules off
caste.
(B) BRAHMANISM (cont.)
CASTE is the institution which makes
India unique, the device breaking up
Indians into fixed categories that has no
approximation elsewhere in the world.
Every Hindu is born into a caste and his
caste determines his religious, social,
economic, and domestic life from the cradle
to the grave.
No man may ever leave his caste, except to
be expelled.
It is impossible to progress from caste to
caste.
Marriage between castes is foorbidden.
(B) BRAHMANISM (cont.)
19
th
Century India India was a
congerie of hundreds of principalities;
in each one ruled independently a
maharajah.
The justice of the king was in theory
personal. It was partly done by sending
judicial officials to go on circuit, but
special classes of cases were reserved
for the kings personal hearing and
decisions in the Audience Hall.
GREEK Legal System
Secular in origin not conceived as part of
religion emanating from a divine source
The Greek race emerges into history as a
hundred or more local tribes, or clans, or city-
states, each independent, and each based more
or less on democracy. No single unified Greek
nation yet.
The Homeric poems, shows the king at the head;
he was at once the chief priest, the chief judge
and the supreme warlord. BUT he was guided by
a Council of the chief men of the community
whom he consulted; and the decisions of the
Council and King deliberating together are
brought before the Assembly of the whole people
(called the Agora out of which democracy
springs).
Greek Democratic Justice
Found in Homers description:
The scenes depicted on the splendid
shield which Hephaestos made for
Achilles in the Trojan war wherein the
parties plead their cause before the
assembly of freemen; the chief presides
as umpire, then the wise elders, skilled in
the law, propose various judgments; then
the freemen acclaim the best one and
thus decide the case.
Greek Democratic Justice (cont)
At Athens, the Agora, or marketplace, the
Areopagus Hill, and the Pnyx Hill were
the chief places of interest for law and
politics.
Usually, the Assembly meet on the hill
called Pnyx where statesmen like
Pericles delivered their speeches, under
the warm blue Greek sky.
Areopagus a special place for certain
trials for homicide; it was also here
where the Apostle Paul made his
memorable address to the people of
Athens.
The Trial Method
Was an advanced form of the early
one in the tribal assembly, depicted by
Homer on the shield.
A jury list of 6000 or more names was
made up.
For ordinary cases: a panel of 201
names drawn by lot, may suffice.
For special cases: the panel of 1000
or 1500 or 2500 jurymen
The Trial Method (cont)
System Instituted by Solon
Here, Athenian trial was entirely in the hands of non-
professionals;
Presiding magistrate selected by lot;
Jurors were drafted from citizen body;
Any citizen could be prosecutor and the defendant
conducted his own case.
Magistrates supervised the preliminary proceeding;
During trial, the magistrate was no more than a chairman of
a public assembly; no presiding judge to declare the law
authoritatively;
No appeal
The citizens were the whole court judges of law and facts
without control. No jury deliberation.
After evidence, all casted their votes in the verdicturn.
The Trial Method (cont)
Thus, essentially JURY SYSTEM
Another practice of Athenian law was to
allow defendant when condemned to
propose a lighter punishment than that
fixed by the accuser; and the judges
were required to choose one of the two
sentences (like what happened with
Socrates).
However, it seems that the Greek had a
system of justice but hardly a system of
law, because: no codes, no reasoned
decisions, no doctrinal treaties, no
professional judges or jurist.
ROMAN Legal System
Broad Sense: Roman law refers to the
entire legal order of the Roman state,
from the time of the Republic to the
Roman Empire.
It embraces public law, sacred law, private
law and customary law.
Restricted Sense: Roman law means the
private law governing private rights,
interests, and transactions, excluding the
public law of Rome. It is in this sense
that Roman law is also known as Civil
Law.
3 Periods in
the Development of Roman Law
The Archaic Period or Infancy Period
from the founding of Rome to the
Twelve Tables (451 BC)
The Republican Period or Youth
Period from the Twelve Tables to the
founding of the Empire (451-30 BC)
Maturity Period and Old Age or
Classical Period from the founding
of Empire to the death of Justinian (30
BC AD 565)
To be continued...
Discussions on the Roman Legal
System onwards will be next meeting
after the midterms.
Midterms August 8, 2011
Coverage: All reading materials up to the
Roman Legal System
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and
Essays
GOOD LUCK!

BREAK A LEG!

GOD BLESS!

CELTIC Legal System
Celts or Kelts descendants of the
prehistoric glacial people, who about 600
BC invaded Gaul (now France and
Belgium) and the islands of Great
Britain Scotland, England and Wales,
and Ireland.
Three Periods in the Celtic Legal System
Political Independence before Julius
Caezars conquest of Gaul and Britain
Surviving Branches of the Celtic Legal
System the Welsh and the Irish
Final Dissolution of the Welsh and the Irish

The Three Periods
in the Celtic Legal System
(cont.)
Political Independence
Druidism acknowledged a god that
delighted in bloodshed; it taught of the
immortality of the soul, and inculcated the
contempt of danger and death.
The Druids possessed considerable administrative
power, for they kept the people in constant terror of
them. They are the dispenser of justice and decide
almost all disputes, both public and private.
Note how punishment may help in the administration of a
community.
Their power lay, not in physical or political force, but in
their influence as priests of religion and magic.
Since the Druids influenced the minds of the people, the
Romans found no other way of securing their conquests
over any of the Celtic nations than by exterminating the
Druids.
The Three Periods
(cont.)
Surviving Branches of the Celtic Legal System
IRELAND
1
st
Period: Heroic Age and Pagan Druidism
The law is transmitted only by memory of the Brehon judges.
2
nd
Period: Christianity and formulation of the written rules
of law, though the efforts of St. Pathric.
3
rd
Period: Danish and the Norman invasions gradually
paralyzed all political progress, but the Brehon jurists
continue to practice their law.
4
th
Perioid: The political ruin of Ireland is followed by the
disappearance of the Brehon law.
WELSH
Welsh Code written down about AD 900 this code has
traces of Roman law, specifically Justinians famous line:
Three things the law enjoys upon all: to live honestly; to cause no
vexation or harm to another; and to render to every one his due.

The Three Periods
(cont.)
Final Dissolution of the Welsh and the
Irish
The end came by force of conquest, first of
Welsh. Llewellyn the Great tried to unite the
Celtic tribal factions of the people and
attempted to save the ancient laws of Wales
through the Magna Carta.
However, its final extinction was the work of
the Tudor Dynasty. Henry VIII united Wales
completely to England and decreed that only
English laws would apply even with Wales.
As to the Irish faction, in 1613, James I called
an Irish parliament, and this body went
through the form of declaring the Brehon law
abolished.
SLAVIC Legal System
The Four Principal Slavic Nations:
Russia, the Serbs, the Bohemian (or Czech), the Polish
Four Stages in Russias Legal Evolution:
The establishment from 9
th
century of a ruling class of
independent princes possessing all the land and controlling
the people on the land.
The submergence of the country (13
th
Cent.) by the
Mongols giving new directions to govt.
The emergence (16
th
Cent.) of the absolute rule of Moscow
tsars and the final enserfment of the mass of people.
The passing of the old order and the establishment of
communism in 1917.
Tolstoys description of the first three stages of the legal
history of Russia: Rules established by men, who have
control of organized power and which are enforced
against the recalcitrant by the lash, prison, and even
murder.
SLAVIC Legal System (cont.)
A real legal system arrived for Russia
fifty years later under the wise and
conscientious Emperor Nicholas I, who
authorized Michael Speransky to
assemble a commission of jurists and
collected and printed the materials called
Svod Zakonof or collection of laws.
March revolution of 1917 witnessed the
transition of govt from the Russian Tsar
to the Kerensky provisional govt. of the
intelligentsia to the rise of the
Bolsheviks, who established the
communist government.
SLAVIC Legal System (cont.)
The Three Essential Facts about the Kind of
Government the 1936 Constitution provided:
1
st
It is designed to guarantee the socialist
economy. The socialization is applied only to
what are called the basic means of production.
(Please, see p. 74 on ownership)
2
nd
The Bolsheviks do not believe in what they
call division of powers in their govt. Power rests
into the Soviet President of the Supreme Council.
3
rd
The Civil Code of Soviet Russia was
adopted in 1922. The very existence of a civil
code in Soviet Russia is something of an
anomaly, and is explained only by the fact that
the abolition of private property is not yet
complete.
GERMANIC Legal System
Four Stages of the Germanic Legal
System:
Prehistoric Period of the Vikings & the
Goths
Period of Goth Migration south and west
and their establishment in the provinces of
the Roman empire, ending with the
formation of the great Germanic empire
under Charlemagne.
Fusion of races and later by the
localization of the law.
Transformation by Roman and Papal law
(cont)
Germanic justice, as it emerges into history,
is characterized as purely secular.
The justice of the whole tribe was democratic.
The settlement of disputes between clans, was
done at the assembly of the people, the Al-ting,
where all the free men, armed, meet periodically,
by a lunar calendar. Then the courts meet on the
Hill of Laws where the parties to a dispute
pleaded their causes before the assembly. Then
one or more of the Law-speakers, venerable or
clever men, propounded a decision; then the
assembly, by their shouts, or with clash of sword
on shield, approved or disapproved the
proposals of the law speakers for the most
steemed sort of applause was the clash of
weapons.
(cont)
The Franks or freemen adopted a
system of laws known as the Lex
Salica or the Code of the Salic Franks.
The Chief Difference between:

Roman Laws Salic Laws/
Laws of the Teutons
Were designed for the good of
the state as a whole.
Gave great attention to securing
justice for the individual.
(cont)
Code or Edict of the Lombards where the modern idea of a
trust could be traced to.
AD 650 the laws of the Goths and Romans were compiled
and called Forum Judicum or Fuero Juzgo.
Charlemagnes first parliamentary degrees called
capitularies was established and sent his personal envoys
on circuit to inspect the course of justice. This personal
envoys were called adjustitias faciendas, and this method
served later to develop the Anglican institution of trial by jury.
Emperor Maximillian in AD 1495 established the Imperial
Chamber of Justice, as a central court of appeal, and
provided that one-half of its sixteen judges should always be
learned doctors of the new Roman law, the sun was setting
on the power of the old Germanic schoeffen, or lay-judges in
Germany, their last stronghold and the doom of the pure
Germanic legal system was sealed.
JAPANESE Legal System
1
st
Period (AD 600-1200) Jushichi
Kempo or Seventeen Maxims of the
royal prince-regent Umayado or
Shotoku Taishi.
The Seventeen Maxims of Shotoku are
essentially not rules of law, but a short
code of political and social morality.
Politically, they foreshadowed the consolidation
of the new territories under a single royal
power.
Socially, they represented the adoption of
Confucianism.
(cont.)
From 1200-1600, great feudal families grew
and fought one another. The rule of the
intellectuals at the palace in the capital was
finally shattered by the growing power of the
rich military barons, who gradually acquired a
semi-independence.
In the 1100s, the palace intellectuals lost
their power. National sovereignty was
nominally left in the person of the Emperor of
Kyoto, the western capital, but the complete
political power was now vested in the
Regency, based on military feudal tenure,
and located in the East at Kamakura.
(cont.)
2
nd
Period the Rise of the Shogunate
(1192).
Minamoto Yoritomo first typical figure of this
period; he sought to be named Military
Regent (Shogun). He created the Monjusho
(Office of Inquiry and Decision), essentially a
court of justice.
Jo-Yei Shikimoku (Ordinance of the period Jo
Yei) a political code promulgated in AD
1225. Its main purpose was to regulate the
new military-feudal regime, and it contained
few rules touching private rights.
(cont.)
3
rd
Period The Tokugawa Dynasty of the
Regency (1600-1850)
Regent Tokugawa Iyeyasu came into power in the early
1600s.
Under the Tokugawa Dynasty, Japan reached a
permanent state of political equilibrium, economic
prosperity and social quiet.
The Tokugawa Regency provided within its own
extensive domain a model of administration for the fiefs
of the greater semin-independent barons. Japan then
enjoyed a complete peace, internal and external.
The Tokugawa Supreme Court of Yedo was given a
federal original jurisdiction, for the suits between parties
from different provinces. It plays a confirmatory role in
the decisions of the barons court for death sentences.
Often consulted with a view to uniformity of law. Yedo
laws must be followed in all provinces.
(cont.)
4
th
Period End of Japanese Seclusion and Shogunate
In 1853, Commodore Perry came with his American fleet
and demanded the rights of trading. Other nations then
followed.
Treaties were forged, where the Japanese gladly conceded
to the foreign nations the power and duty of extra-
territoriality, i.e., jurisdiction over the foreign nationals, as
the price for refusing general rights of settlement
throughout the land.
Because of the seeming subservience of the Regency to
the foreign nations, the powerful semi-independent barons
rebelled. Two great families or clans rose into prominence
the SATSUMAS and CHOSHUS, who abolished the
SHOGUNATE, and resurrected the emperor as the
supreme embodiment of power.
A new emperor ascended to the throne, a BOY named
Mutsuhito, who was reinstated in 1868 and who signed a
Charter Oath. This is now called the MEIJI
RESTORATION.
(cont.)
In 1889, a written constitution was drafted by
Count Ito, Japans greatest statesman of the last
generation.
Note that until its defeat in World War II, Japat
had for at least a thousand years been a military
state a totalitarian state, obsessed by what it
conceived as a divine and imperial mission to
conquer East Asia.
After its unconditional surrender to the Allies in
1945, Japan has been placed under the
supervision of an administrative commission set
up by the Allies with the end in view, among
others, of democratizing Japan.
The emperor has, however, been allowed to remain,
as the symbolic head of the nation.
ANGLO-AMERICAN Legal
System
(a) Common Law in England
The foundations of the Common Laws were laid
during the reign of William of Normandy, but it
was during the times of Henry I that the formative
period of the Common law may be said to have
been ushered in.
Up to the time of Edward I, we see the evolution
of the royal courts, whose judgments began to
build up the Common Law, and the growth of
procedure characterized by the use of system of
writs, the introduction of inquest as a mode of
trial, the beginning of written pleadings and
advocacy.
Writs the method by which litigation was drawn
into royal tribunals.
System (cont.)
System of Equity began during the
reign of Edward I when petitions to the
king were referred to the Chancellor.
Because of the limited jurisdiction of the
common law courts, the king had to refer
some cases to the Chancellor.
Some Famous Maxims of Equity.
1) He who comes to Equity must come with clean
hands.
2) Equity will not suffer a wrong to be without
remedy.
3) Delay defeats Equity.
4) Equity looks to the intent rather than to the form.
System (cont.)
The Chief Legal Events from 17
th
to 19
th
Century
or the Flowering of the Common Law System:
a) constitution developments such as the
inauguration of the sovereignty of Parliaments and its
transformation into a democratic body, the
establishment of the doctrines of the supremacy of
the law, independence of the judiciary and inviolability
of civil liberties and the development of the famous
writ of habeas corpus.
b) the incorporation of the Law of Merchants into
Common Law.
c) the establishment of stare decisis as a definite rule.
d) the appearance of law reports.
e) the reorganization of the judicial system.
f) procedural developments.
System (cont.)
g) the organization of the law practitioners
into a dual system.
h) the appearance of other great legal
figures who exercised a great influence in
the development of the Common law.
i) the cospomolitanization and expansion
of this system.
j) the beginning of the codification
movement.
System (cont.)
(b) Common Law in the United States
Remember that the US used to be divided into 13 colonies
under the control of England.
But in 1774, a Continental Congress, as representatives of
the people of the colonies, declared their independence.
But the Common Law had followed the English colonies. At
present, except for the Louisiana, the system of
jurisprudence that now prevails in the American states is
that which has been derived from the Common Law of
England.
A decisive factor in the survival of the Common Law in
America was the influence of Blackstones Commentaries.
Some Famous American Legal Luminaries:
John Marshal Chief Justice of the USSC 1801-1835, the first to
proclaim the doctrine of judicial supremacy.
Joseph Story a prolific textbook writer, especially on Conflict of
Laws.
Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote Common Law, an American book
on legal history or philosophy.
CATHOLIC (PAPAL) Legal
System and the CANON LAW
AD 800-1200 The Popes had begun to acquire
a temporal authority under Pepin le Bref and
Charlemagne, from the donations of territory
made by those princes, and they were now
gradually extending spiritual jurisdiction over all
Christian kingdoms.
Interchange of Roles:
Kings, dukes, and counts neglected their temporal
duties and shut themselves up in cloister, and spent
their lives in prayers and penance.
Ecclesiastics were employed in all the departments of
secular govt, and they alone conducted all public
measures and state negotiations, which of course,
they directed to the great objects of advancing the
interests of the church, and establishing the
paramount authority of the Holy See.
(cont.)
Pope Nicholas I (AD 859) proclaimed
to the whole world his
paramount judgment in appeal from the
sentences of all spiritual judicatories;
power of assembling councils of the
Church, and of regulating it by the canons
of those councils;
the right of exercising his authority by
legates in all the kingdoms of Europe, and
the control of the Pope over all princes
and governors.
(cont.)
In AD 961, Otho the Great received the Imperial crown from
the Pope. Thus, from that time on, the Emperors were
considered as the temporal head, while the Popes as spiritual
head, of all Christendom.
All Christian countries seemed to have been included in one
grand republic.
The Contest between the Church and the Empire began with
Henry IV, emperor of Germany and Pope Gregory VII.
The Pope here sought to raise the spiritual above the temporal
authority in all the states of Europe.
Innocent III at the beginning of the 13
th
century established
the powers of the Popedom on a settled basis, a positive
acknowledgment of the papal supremacy, or the right
principalitier et finaliter to confer the imperial crown.
Without the Popes approval, no emperor may be recognized as
legitimate. Its clergy were immune from the criminal justice of the
state.
Legislation covered the cradle to the grave.
(cont.)
Decretals of Isidore of AD 800s, papal supreme jurisdiction
was re-enforced here.
Decretum of Gratian where Canon law originated.
Composed of the legislation and decisions of Popes, after
accumulating for seven centuries in thousands of separate
decrees, rescripts, bulls, and council-resolutions. Compiled
by a monk named Gratian at the University of Bologna in AD
1140.
This created Canon (or papal) law as an independent system.
This has become a strong legal support in the Popes rivalry with
the Emperors.
Canon law began to be taught and became the legal buttress of
the papal theocracy and remained the ruling code till the
Reformation.
Under the Roman state, the religious laws the jus sacrum, jus
pontificium were not a distinct body of legislation.
The Church encroached more and more upon the jurisdiction of
the civil courts.
(cont.)
Three Parts of the Decretum ofr Gratian:
1
st
Distinctiones: treats of the sources of canon
law, councils and the mode of their convention,
the authority of decretals, the election of the
Roman pontiff, the election and consecration of
bishops, the papal prerogative, papal legates, the
ordination of the clergy, clerical celibacy, and
kindred topics.
2
nd
Causae: discusses different questions of
procedures, such as the ordination and trial of
bishops and the lower clergy, excommunication,
simony, clerical and church property, marriage,
heresy, magic and penance.
3
rd
is devoted to the sacraments of the
eucharist and baptism and the consecration of
churches.
(cont.)
Corpus Juris Canonici a series of
collections, which constitutes the official body
of canon law, composed of the following:
Gratians Decretum, Gregory IXs Decretales,
the Sext, the Clementines, and the
Extravagantes of John XXII.
The canon law attempted the task of legislating
in detail all phases of human life clerical,
ecclesiastical, social, domestic.
The Church has not only its own code and its
specifically religious penalties, but also its own
prisons.
The canon law justified wars against the enemies
of religion and the persecution of heretics.
(cont.)
Rise of Patriotic Nationality and
Legislative Independence throughout the
West of Europe:
The reign of Edward I (AD 1300) was marked
by the rise of nationalism and unified
legislation.
Subsequently, the Reformers like Luther and
Calvin raised their voices in protest against
the legalistic tyranny of the Pope. At
Wittenberg in 1520, Luther threw a copy of
the canon law, the one representing the
infallibility of the pope.
(cont.)
Council of Trent attended by over 300
bishops, ambassadors, cardinals, and other
delegates. It covered 18 years. Its legislation
ranged over the whole system of Canon Law.
But by the time this Council ended, the
Protestant seceders had broken the churchs
universal power.
The national secular law in each country of
Europe was thenceforth to become supreme
and exclusive. The temporal jurisdiction of the
papal courts was in time abolished by the
various national legislatures.
Notable here was the break of England under
King Henry VIII from the Roman Catholic Church.
The King is the only supreme in earth of the
church of England.
(cont.)
Codex Juris Canonici was promulgated by
Pope Benedict XV in May 27, 1917. This
work, unlike the old Corpus Juris Canonici, is
not a compilation, but a genuine codification
one of the modern worlds greatest
masterpieces of composition.
Second Vatican Council was opened by
Pope John XXIII on January 25, 1959 and
opened the Church to the world. The same
Council revisited the old Code and in 1977,
Pope Paul VI started the formulation of the
new Code. And on January 25, 1983, Pope
John Paul II promulgated the present Code of
Canon Law, which has the force of laws for
the whole Latin Church.
MOHAMMEDAN Legal
System
Is based on Islam, founded by
Mohammed (or Mahomet) on AD 600.
Not Mohammedanism but Islam
meaning submission to one God.
Islam aspired to be a comprehensive system
of human life and social order religion,
morality, politics, and law.
Islams basis: Revelation, respects Hebrew
traditions of reverence for Moses and
Abraham, mission of Jesus of Nazareth.
Central Thought in the Teaching of Mahomet:
There is no God but the true God and
Mahomet is his prophet.
MOHAMMEDAN Legal System
(cont.)
Sources of Islamic Law:
1
st
the Koran (literally the book which
ought to be read) or word of God, as
written down by Mohammed;
2
nd
the sayings and conduct of
Mohammed;
3
rd
the treaties of jurist, elaborately
developing from those fundamentals the
legal rules applicable to all the affairs of
life.
The end
God bless you!

The Legal Systems of The World

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The Legal Systems of The World

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A PANORAMA of the

LEGAL SYSTEMS of the

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