Law Atlas

How The Law Decides
Legal Systems

Mixed Systems

Also Known As Hybrid Legal Systems

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Mixed systems combine elements of common law, civil law, religious law or customary law within a single jurisdiction, generally as the historical result of one legal tradition being layered atop another through conquest, colonization or migration rather than one clean tradition being adopted wholesale. Well documented examples include Louisiana and Quebec, whose private law remains civil law inherited from French rule within otherwise common law nations; South Africa, which blends Roman-Dutch civil law, English common law and customary law; Scotland, which blends civilian and common law influences within the United Kingdom; and the Philippines and Israel, each of which layers civil law, common law and, in domains such as family law, religious law.

Facts
Example Jurisdictions
Louisiana and Quebec; South Africa; Scotland; the Philippines; Israel. 1
Primary Source of Law
A blend of codified statutes, judicial precedent, and, in some jurisdictions, customary or religious law, in proportions that vary by jurisdiction. 2
Cross-Tradition Connections

Includes

Source Major Legal Systems in the World TodayRene David and John E.C. Brierley

South African law is classified in comparative law as a mixed system combining Roman-Dutch civil law, English common law and indigenous customary law, the same classification S v Makwanyane and Another itself already carries.

Named as one of the mixed-systems family, among its own worked examples (private law inherited from French rule within an otherwise common law nation).

The code is described in the source as an original Ottoman creation, neither purely European nor entirely Islamic, founded on traditional practice with categories drawn from Islamic law.

South African law is classified in comparative law as a mixed system combining Roman-Dutch civil law, English common law and indigenous customary law.

Named as one of the mixed-systems family, among its own worked examples (civilian and common law influences within the United Kingdom).

Named as one of the mixed-systems family, among its own worked examples (Roman-Dutch civil law, English common law and customary law blended in one jurisdiction).

Source Major Legal Systems in the World TodayRene David and John E.C. Brierley
Sources
1. Major Legal Systems in the World Today
Rene David and John E.C. Brierley, Stevens and Sons, 1985
2. An Introduction to Comparative Law
Konrad Zweigert and Hein Koetz; English translation by Tony Weir, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998
S v Makwanyane and Another, Constitutional Court of South Africa Judgment (Refworld)
Includes: S v Makwanyane and AnotherView the Source
Constitutional Court of South Africa (Britannica)
Includes: Constitutional Court of South Africa
Ottoman Land Code of 1858 (Wikipedia)
Includes: Ottoman Land Code of 1858
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