Mixed Legal System

Legal systems generally are ‘mixed’ in the sense that they have been influenced by a variety of other systems.

The Nature of Mixed Legal Systems

This includes:

• Comparative Law
• Polyjural Systems
• Hybridity
• Normative Complexity

Common and Civil Law Hybridities

This includes:

• Stare Decisis (Common Law doctrine)
• Nonbinding Case Law (Civil Law doctrine)
• Mixity of the Laws
• Sources of Law
• Legal Method
• Legal diversity

Mixed Legal Systems with Indigenous, Customary, and Religious Law

This includes:

• Vanuatu Law
• Iraeli Legal System
• Customary Law
• Islamic Law
• Colonial Law
• Socialist Law
• Indigenous Law

The Islamic Legal System and Western Legal Traditions

This includes:

• Turkey Law
• Religion
• Iranian Legal System

Mixing in Specialized Areas of the Law

This includes:

• Islamic Law and International Law in the Constitution
• Consolidation of islamic Law and Modern Western Law in the iranian Penal Code
• Ancient euro-Mediterranean aversion for Usury
• Islamic Finance disputes

Mixed Legal Systems in the World

From the information provided by the Univesity of Ottawa:

“The term “mixed”, which we have chosen over other terms such as “hybrid” or “composite”, should not be construed restrictively, as certain authors have done. Thus this category includes (countries) where two or more systems apply cumulatively or interactively, but also (countries) where there is a juxtaposition of systems as a result of more or less clearly defined fields of application.”

MIXED SYSTEMS OF CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW

SOUTH AFRICA
BOTSWANA
CYPRUS
SCOTLAND (UK)
GUYANA
LOUISIANA (USA)
MALTA
MAURITIUS
NAMIBIA
PHILIPPINES
PORTO RICO (ASS. USA)
QUEBEC (CD)
SAINT LUCIA
SEYCHELLES

MIXED SYSTEMS OF CIVIL LAW AND CUSTOMARY LAW

BURKINA FASO
BURUNDI
CHAD
CHINA (CN) (minus Hong-Kong and MACAU)
CONGO
CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF
COTE D’IVOIRE
ETHIOPIA
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
GABON
GUINEA
GUINEA-BISSAU
JAPAN
KOREA SOUTH
KOREA NORTH
MADAGASCAR
MALI
MONGOLIA
MOZAMBIQUE
NIGER
RWANDA
SAO TOMÉ AND PRINCIPE
SENEGAL
SWAZILAND
TAIWAN
TOGO

MIXED SYSTEMS OF CIVIL LAW AND MUSLIM LAW

ALGERIA
COMOROS ISLANDS
EGYPT
IRAN
IRAQ
LEBANON
LIBYA
MAURITANIA
MOROCCO
PALESTINE
SYRIA
TUNISIA

MIXED SYSTEMS OF COMMON LAW AND CUSTOMARY LAW

BHUTAN
GHANA
HONG KONG (CN)
LIBERIA
MALAWI
MICRONESIA
MYANMAR
NEPAL
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
SAMOA
SIERRA LEONE
SALOMON, ISLANDS
TANZANIA
UGANDA
ZAMBIA

MIXED SYSTEMS OF COMMON LAW AND MUSLIM LAW

BANGLADESH
PAKISTAN
SINGAPORE
SUDAN

MIXED SYSTEMS OF CIVIL LAW, MUSLIM LAW AND CUSTOMARY LAW

DJIBOUTI
ERITREA
INDONESIA
JORDAN
KUWAIT
OMAN
TIMOR LESTE

MIXED SYSTEMS OF COMMON LAW, MUSLIM LAW AND CUSTOMARY LAW

BRUNEI
GAMBIA
INDIA
KENYA
MALAYSIA
NIGERIA

MIXED SYSTEMS OF CIVIL LAW, COMMON LAW AND CUSTOMARY LAW

CAMEROUN
LESOTHO
SRI LANKA
VANUATU
ZIMBABWE

MIXED SYSTEMS OF COMMON LAW, CIVIL LAW, MUSLIM LAW AND CUSTOMARY LAW

BAHRAIN
QATAR
SOMALIA
YEMEN

MIXED SYSTEM OF CIVIL LAW, COMMON LAW, JEWISH LAW AND MUSLIM LAW

ISRAEL

MIXED SYSTEM OF MUSLIM LAW AND CUSTOMARY LAW

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Resources

Further Reading

AMIN, S.H., Middle East Legal Systems, Glasgow, Royston, 1985

ASSOCIATION DES UNIVERSITES PARTIELLEMENT OU ENTIÈREMENT DE LANGUE FRANÇAISE, La formation du droit national dans les pays de droit mixte : les systèmes juridiques de Common law et de droit civil, Aix-Marseille, Presses Universitaires, 1989.

BAKER, H.E., The Legal System of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel Universities Press, 1968.

BELLE ANTOINE, R.-M., Commonwealth Caribbean law and Legal Systems, London, Cavendish, 1999.

CAIRNS, J.W., The 1808 Digest of Orleans and 1866 Civil Code of Lower Canada: An Historical Study of Legal Change, (Dissertation), Edinburgh 1980.

CLARENCE SMITH, J.A. et KERBY, J., Le droit privé au Canada, Études comparatives, I : Introduction général, Ottawa, Presse de l’Université d’Ottawa, 1975.

DAINOW, J., (ed.), The Role of Judicial Decision and Doctrine in Civil law and in Mixed Jurisdictions, Baton Rouge, L.S.U.P, 1974.

DAVID,H., Introduction à l’étude du droit écossais, Paris,L.G.D.J,1972.

“Mixed Legal Systems, East and West”, Edited by Vernon Valentine Palmer, Tulane University, United States, Mohamed Y. Mattar and Anna Koppel, both at Johns Hopkins University, United States

DU PLESSIS, J., Comparative Law and the Study of Mixed Legal Systems, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006.

DUPRET, B., BERGER, M. and AL-ZWANI, L., Legal Pluralism in the Arab World, The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 1999.

HAHLO, H.R. and KHAN, E., The South African Legal System and its Background, 1968.

HETCH, N.S., JACKSON, B.S., PASSAMANECK, S.M., PIATTELLI, D. and RABELLO, A.M., An Introduction to the History and Sources of Jewish law, Oxford, Clarendon Press,1996.

JORDAN, “Lost in the Translation: Two Legal Cultures, the Common law Judiciary and theBasic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” , (1977) 30 CORNELL INT’L. L.J. 335.

KLEIN, C., Le droit israélien, Paris, P.U.F., 1990.

MARKESINIS, B., (ed.), The Gradual Convergence: Foreign Ideas, Foreign Influences and English Law on the Eve of the 21st Century, Clarendon Press, Oxford,, 1993.

MARSHALL, E.A., General Principles of Scots Law, 4th ed., Edinburgh, W. Green & Son Ltd., 1982.

OUVRAGE COLLECTIF, Introduction to Chinese Law, Hong Kong, Sweet & Maxwell Asia, 1997.

PALMER, V., (ed.), Collectif, “First Worlwide Congress on Mixed Jurisdictions: Salience and Unity in the Mixed Jurisdiction Experience: Traits, Patterns, Culture, Commonalities” , (2003) 78TULANE LAW REVIEW.

PALMER, V., Critiques of Codification in a Mixed Jurisdiction: Essays on the Louisiana Civilian Experience , Carolina Academic Press, 2004.

PALMER, V., ed., Louisiana : Microcosm of a Mixed Jurisdiction, Carolina Academic Press, 1999.

PALMER, V., Mixed Jurisdictions Worldwide: The Third Legal Family , Cambridge University Press, 2001.

PIQUET, H., La Chine au carrefour des traditions juridiques, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 2005.

POH-LING, T., (ed.), Asian Legal Systems : Law, Society and Pluralism in East Asia, Sydney, Butterworths, 1997.

RABELLO, A.M., (ed.), European Legal Traditions and Israel, The Harry and Michael Sacher Institute for Legislative Research and Comparative Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem,1994.

REID, Kenneth G.C., “The Idea of Mixed Legal Systems” , (2003) 78 Tulane Law Review 5-40.

ZIMMERMANN, R. and VISSER, D.P., (eds), Southern Cross: Civil law and Common law in South Africa, Juta , 1996.

VELIDEDEOGLU, Hifzi-V., Le mouvement de codification dans les pays musulmans. Ses rapports avec les systèmes juridiques occidentaux, Cinquième congrès international de droit comparé, Bruxelles, 1960.

WERNEER, M., Comparative Law in a Global context : The Legal Systems of Asia and Africa, 2nd ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006.