Law Atlas

How The Law Decides
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Legal Systems

Law of Jordan

Mixed and Hybrid Legal Systems

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Jordanian law is a mixed system combining Islamic sharia, Ottoman legal tradition and European influence, above all French civil law. Before 1918 the territory was governed by Ottoman sharia courts applying the four schools of Islamic law alongside the Ottoman Mecelle code, and after the First World War the British mandate, which lasted until Jordan independence in 1946, introduced elements of English common law. Jordan modern penal code descends from the Ottoman Law of 1858, itself based on the French Penal Code of 1810, and was heavily shaped by Lebanese criminal law of 1943. The 1952 Constitution establishes Islam as the state religion while protecting religious pluralism, and under it sharia courts hold exclusive jurisdiction over Muslim personal status matters such as marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance, while separate civil courts handle criminal and commercial cases within a system that also includes a bicameral legislature of an appointed upper house and a 138 member elected lower house.

Cross-Tradition Connections

In Legal System

Family classification carried over from this entity's own recorded SubLabel (Mixed and Hybrid Legal Systems), assigned under the section-legal-systems structure wave (ruling 761) using the CIA World Factbook / JuriGlobe comparative-law family classification (system.Atlas.DataBrief, law). This edge materializes that existing classification as a connective fact; it is not a new independent research finding.

Includes

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.