legal systems

Courts and codes

Legal systems are the frameworks of laws, courts, and institutions that govern how disputes are resolved and justice administered within a society.

Major traditions include common law (precedent-based, as in the U.S. and U.K.), civil law (code-based, as in France and Germany), and religious law (as in Islamic sharia).

A country's legal system shapes everything from contracts to criminal punishment: The two legal systems handle property rights very differently.

Opposites
formality and institutionalization

legal systemsvigilante justice

Unauthorized punishment by civilians

mob justice · lynch law · blood feuds · lynch mobs · frontier justice

source of authority

legal systemsdivine law

Rules from deity

natural law · moral law · religious law · social norms · unwritten rules

order versus chaos

legal systemsanarchy

Disorder from absent authority

lawlessness · anomie · chaos · state of nature · failed states

Family

system, legal, illegal, delegate, legalize, legally, systemic, relegate, legalized

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