Inherited legal systems and effective rule of law: Africa and the colonial legacy

2001 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Fullerton Joireman

The question of whether particular types of legal institutions influence the effectiveness of the rule of law has long been answered with conjecture. Common law lawyers and judges tend to believe that the common law system is superior. This opinion is based on the idea that the common law system inherited from the British is more able to protect the rights of the individual than civil law judicial systems. Quite the opposite point of view can be found in lawyers from civil law countries, who may view the common law system as capricious and disorganised. This paper compares the effectiveness of the rule of law in common law and civil law countries in Africa, through a cross-national statistical comparison using Freedom House and Political Risk Services data. The comparison reveals that common law countries in Africa are generally better at providing ‘rule of law’ than are civil law countries.

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-142
Author(s):  
Ruth Levush

The Israeli legal system belongs to the Western legal culture which is based on the rule of law and takes secular, liberal and rational approach that puts the individual at the center. The Israeli legal system has been classified as a “mixed jurisdiction” in that it has traits of both common law as well as civil law systems.


ICL Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-211
Author(s):  
Nadia E Nedzel

Abstract The Rule of Law and economic development are widely regarded as necessary for a successful society, but defining the international rule of law and explaining the relationship with economic development has proven elusive. This article begins with explanations posited by Hayek and others, but brings a fresh perspective grounded in a multidisciplinary and contextual approach that includes history, philosophy, economics, and law. Properly defined, the rule of law refers to a specific understanding of the relationship between the individual and government. The common law conception of the rule of law (as opposed to the civilian Rechtsstaat or L’État de Droit) is historically more supportive of economic development, but modern international descriptions and definitions confuse the two. Based on empirical economic studies and historical legal anthropology, the common law understanding focused on limited government and individual freedom from interference has proven more likely to encourage entrepreneurship and hence economic development on a long-term basis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-302
Author(s):  
David F. Forte

In the American system of justice, based on the common law method, the judge enjoys greater independence than do the judges in Civil Law systems. Independence of the judiciary is essential in a system of checks and balances where the more powerful elements of the legislature and the executive must be limited by legally enforced principles. At the same time, judicial independence is constrained within moral limits by a system of positive law rules that direct the judge to make reasoned judgments that he must justify by open opinions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Rahmi Jened

Abstracthe existence of Secondary Mortgage Facility (SMF) in Indonesia is adopted from common law s tradition. It is not easy to adopt legal institutions derived from the common law tradition into our country that base on the civil law tradition. Furthermore, even though SMF has managed to solve mismatch and improve credit liquidity, hence there are some critical legal notes to SMF institution. This paper will discuss about the differences law and regulation of real property ownership, true sale for repurchase of loan and its   secured transaction (mortgage) and the existence of Special Purpose Vehicle between Common Law and civil Law tradition. IntisariEksistensi lembaga Fasilitas PembiayaanSekunder Perumahan (SMF) di Indonesia diadopsi dari common law system. Tentu bukan hal mudah untuk mengadopsi lembaga hukum dari tradisi common law ke dalam tradisi civil law. Meskipun telah terbukti lembaga ini dapat mengatasi mismatch dan meningkatkan likuiditas KPR, namun ada beberapa catatan hokum kritis tentang Pembiayaan Sekunder Perumahan.Makalah ini akan membahas perbedaan hokum dan aturan tentang kepemilikan tanah, jual putus untuk penjualan kredit dan hak tanggungannya serta eksistensi perusahaan kendaraan untuk tujuan khusus antara tradisi Common Law dan Civil Law.


Author(s):  
Nur Sodiq

Legal establishment of a joint legislative task of the executive. Law concretely manifest in a legislation. The times are always accompanied by a society is demands, which is in line with the progress of the development of science and technology globally. Functions of the state in charge of all the rules to organize and meet the needs of its citizens is done throught legal political policy. The law requires the develoment of a progressive politics that is always dynamic. Resonsibility society must be accomodated in e lagislation. Shades of the Indonesian legal system of formal legalistif formal positiviestic character is not aspirational again in the resolution of lawsuits that are very dynamic and responsive at this time, for the next legislators and executive branches in the establishment of the rule of law it is time to shift the mindset forwards the type of legal realistic, practical and progressive. Guidelines used by the legislators it was time to adopt, replicate and wear character types law the families of law outside continental Europe, one of which types and styles of breath common law system. All toward political reform law is realized through the establishment of policies that must be taken for the ralization of the type of welfare state. Pembentukan hukum merupakan tugas legislatif bersama eksekutif. Hukum secara konkrit dirumuskan dalam suatu perundang-undangan. Perkembangan hukum selalu diiringi oleh berbagai tuntutan kebutuhan masyarakat, yang seiring dan sejalan dengan kemajuan perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan dan teknologi baik secara nasional maupun global. Fungsi negara dalam mengisi segala aturan untuk menyelenggarakan dan memenuhi kebutuhan hidup warganya dilakukan melalui kebijakan politik hukumnya. Pembangunan politik hukum memerlukan progresivitas yang dinamis. Responsivitas kebutuhan masyarakat mesti dapat tertampung dan diakomodir dalam suatu peraturan perundang-undangan. Corak sistem hukum Indonesia yang berwatak positivistik legalistik formal sudah tidak aspiratif lagi dalam penyelesaian tuntutan hukum yang sangat dinamis dan responsif saat ini. Dengan demikian ke depan diharapkan para legislatif dan eksekutif dalam pembentukan norma hukum sudah saatnya menggeser pola pikir ke arah tipe hukum realistis, praktis dan progresif. Pedoman yang dipakai dalam membentuk undang-undang sudah saatnya mengadopsi, maupun meniru dan memakai tipe-tipe karakter hukum keluarga diluar hukum Eropa kontinental, salah satunya tipe dan corak nafas hukum common law system. Semua arah pembangunan pembentukan hukum diwujudkan melalui kebijakan yang mesti diambil demi terwujudnya tipe negara kesejahteraan.


Author(s):  
William E. Nelson

This chapter shows how common law pleading, the use of common law vocabulary, and substantive common law rules lay at the foundation of every colony’s law by the middle of the eighteenth century. There is some explanation of how this common law system functioned in practice. The chapter then discusses why colonials looked upon the common law as a repository of liberty. It also discusses in detail the development of the legal profession individually in each of the thirteen colonies. Finally, the chapter ends with a discussion of the role of legislation. It shows that, although legislation had played an important role in the development of law and legal institutions in the seventeenth century, eighteenth-century Americans were suspicious of legislation, with the result that the output of pre-Revolutionary legislatures was minimal.


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