Legal Systems

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 What is
a System?

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 “
“A way of working, organizing, or
doing something which follows a
fixed plan or set of rules.”

Collins English Dictionary

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 What is a System?
▪ Human societies have developed numerous types of
systems:

▫ Social systems
▫ Political systems
▫ Economic systems
▫ Education systems
▫ Legal systems
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How did human beings end
up living in cities (with
hundreds of thousands or
more people) and countries
(some with hundreds of
millions or more)?
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▪ By creating “systems” for doing things

▫ Large numbers of strangers can only cooperate successfully

by sharing common beliefs

▫ Religions based on common religious beliefs

▫ Nations based on common national myths/beliefs

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 What is
a
Legal System?

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 Systems Based on Common Legal Beliefs (laws)
 E.g., 2 lawyers who don’t know each other can prosecute &
defend someone accused of a crime or negotiate a complex
business transaction

 Both believe in existence of justice, laws, etc.

 No justice or laws exist unless people invent and accept these

ideas

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What is Law?

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 What is Law?
▪ “The law is the public conscience” - Thomas Hobbes
▪ “The law is not to change the heart but to restrain the
heartless” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
▪ “The law always limits every power it givers” – David Hume
▪ “No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we
ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it” –
Theodore Roosevelt

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How Does Law
Affect You?

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▪ Law affects us all, whether we
realize it or not

▫ Drive a car, get a job, lose a job,

get married, get divorced, start a
business, manage a business, sell
a business, when you die, etc.

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 Law Promotes Justice
▪ Law is an imperfect but important way to preserve and transform
(improve) society

▪ A fair legal system can provide:

▫ Certainty
▫ Predictability
▫ Stability (socially, politically & economically)

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 Law Promotes Justice
 Justice includes fariness ▪ Justice needs more than
laws (must be fair ways to
▫ Law provides way for disputes obtain justice)
to be fairly and peacefully
resolved
– Access to legal advice
▫ All people ideally treated alike
and assistance
▫ Rules of law should be
reasonable, predictable and – Guarantee of fair trial
applied consistently (procedural law)

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When Did Law Begin?

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 When Did Law Begin?
▪ No one knows: People probably always had some
rules (laws) within societies

▫ Before writing, rules were informal and relatively simple –

based on customs (customary law) passed orally from 1
generation to next

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When Did Law Begin?
▪ About 5000 years ago, first written
laws started to appear

▫ 1760 BC: Hammurabi's Code : Created

legal system so people could know their
rights and duties

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Hammuarabi’s Code
▪ Discovered in France in 1901
▪ Laws were publicly displayed
▪ Contained criminal laws,
family laws and laws governing
business
▪ Maintained stability & some
degree of justice

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Ancient Roman Law
▪ 450 B.C.: The 12 Tables

▫ Specified rights of Roman citizens

▫ Enforced by magistrates (judges)
▫ Based largely on customs
▫ Much modern European & American
law based on ancient Roman law

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 Evolution of Law
▪ Modern times sometimes create need for new laws

▫ 1804: Napoleonic Code in France

▫ Became influential in parts of Europe
▫ Also influential in Cambodia

▫ 1900: Germany's Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB)

▫ Model for modern laws of Japan & China

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 Evolution of Law
▪ New laws result from changes in human society

▫ Migration from farms to cities

▫ Technology

▫ Compass – Irrigation – Printing – Computers - Internet –

Artificial Intelligence - ???

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 The Rule of Law
▪ The rule of law is a very
important concept in
Western society (and
other parts of world in
recent history)

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 The Rule of Law
▪ 3 main principles:

– Supremacy of Law: Law is highest authority (higher than

any man)
– Equality of law: Law applies equally to all people
– Human Rights: People have certain basic rights that
cannot easily be taken away

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 Law & Legal Systems
▪ In addition to laws, a legal system includes:

▫ Police, courts and prison systems to enforce the law

▫ Legislators & government agencies to create law
▫ Lawyers to advise people about legal rights and help them make
good decisions

▪ Different countries have different types of legal systems although

most are similar in many ways
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Civil Law & Common Law Legal Systems
▪ Civil Law Legal Systems
▫ Rely heavily on written laws
in the form of statutes
▫ Followed by most
European, South American
& some Asian countries
including Cambodia
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▪ Common Law Legal Systems
▫ Courts have greater authority
to interpret written laws
▫ Followed by England, United
States, Canada and most
former British colonies (e.g.,
Hong Kong, Singapore,
Malaysia, India)
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Civil Law & Common Law Legal Systems
▪ Modern civil & common law systems are similar in many ways,
but have important differences

▫ Common law relies more on cases (court decisions) in addition to

statutes (written laws enacted by legislatures)
▫ Precedent: A court decision in one case provides rule that must
be followed in future similar cases
▫ Trial by jury is important part of common law (will discuss later in
semester)
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 Other Legal Systems
▪ Religious Law: Laws
derived from religious
beliefs

▪ Islamic (Sharia) Law:

Followed in some Arab
(Muslim) countries

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 Mixed Legal Systems
▪ Most countries' legal systems are mixture of civil law (statutes),
common law (court decisions) and sometimes other systems
(customary law, religious law)

▫ E.g., China's legal system based partly on civil law, partly on

socialist law, and partly on customary law
▫ In recent years, even a little common law influence – Supreme
Court’s “guiding cases”

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 “
“I often wonder whether we do not rest our
hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws
and upon courts. These are false hopes . . .
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women;
when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no
court can even do much to help it. While it lies
there it needs no constitution, no law, no court
to save it.” U.S. Judge Learned Hand
(1872-1961)
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