A PANORAMA of the

LEGAL SYSTEMS of the

WORLD
Introduction to Law by Rufus Rodriguez

TWO CLASSIFICATIONS of
Well-Developed Legal Systems
First:

Based on ethnic, cultural group

of people
Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Hebrew,
Chinese, Hindu, Greek, Roman, Celtic,
Slavic, Germanic, Japanese and AngloAmerican
Many of these are now gone (Egyptian and
Mesopotamian)
What remains are the Anglo-American and the
Roman
Hindi survives by tolerance
Chinese alone survives in independence

Two Classifications of WellDeveloped Legal Systems (cont...)

Second:

Based on religion

Catholic legal system (Papal/Canon

Law), Mohammedan legal system
Catholic legal system exists as the law for
the members of the universal Roman
Catholic Church.
Mohammendan system governs the
spiritual life of its members but has been
incorporated by many Islamic states into
their official legal system.

EGYPTIAN Legal System

Traced

back to beyond 4000 BC

Found at the Valley of the Nile
Came into contact with all the great
primitive race-stocks of Africa, Asia and
Europe
Ended during the reign of Cleopatra
Eight century before Christ by the civil war
and then by conquests of invaders from
Assyria, Persia and Greece. The Roman
Caezars struck the final blow to Egypts
political independence.

Key Features of
the Egyptian Legal System
The

monarch (Pharaoh) was

constitutionally the sole supreme
ruler.
He ruled according to law; he was its
autocratic spokesman.
In theory, every land and every man
(alive or dead) belonged to the
monarch.
No man could be buried without the
kings assent.

Monarch exercises the JUDICIAL,

Key Features of
the Egyptian Legal System (cont...)
How

was legislation done?

The monarch made the law sole legislator.

The earliest human lawgiver in Egyptian tradition was
Menes (3200 BC)
How

was justice administered?

The king and the supreme judges dispense justice

through the central royal court (CRC).
CRC headed by the kings supreme justice, assisted by 30
supreme judges.
Originally, the office of the prime minister and of chief judge
were separate, but they were merged and the title chief
judge signified always the kings chief minister.

Provincial courts dispensed justice too.

Presided by administrative officials, under the Central Court.

Some Insights on
the Egyptian Legal System
King

Thutmose IIIs instruction to

Bekhmire when appointed chief
judge:
It is an abomination of god to show
partiality. This is the teaching: thou
shalt act alike to all, shalt regard him
who is known to thee like him who is
unknown to thee, and him who is
near to... Like him who is far... An
official who does this then shall
flourish greatly in the place.

Some Insights on
the Egyptian Legal System (con,t...)
Ramse

IIs parameter of good

leadership:
I planted the whole land with trees
and green things, and made the
people to dwell in their shade. I
made the land safe, so that a lone
woman could go on her way freely,
and none would molest her. I
rescued then humble from their
oppressors. I made every man safe
in his home. I preserved the lives of
those who sought my court justice.

MESOPOTAMIAN Legal
System
Emerged

by 4000 years before Christ

Mesopotamia was the land of the two
rivers: Euphrates and Tigris
Its civilization was centered about
Babylon in the southern portion known
as Chaldea and in Assyria in the north
It lost its independence under the
Persians about 500 years before Christ
It disappeared under the Greeks about
100 years before Christ

Key Features of the

Mesopotamian Legal System
The

king was the foundation of

justice.
The king was the lawgiver, but he
received the law from divine
guidance or the deity.
The sun-god Shamash was the god
of Law, whose children were Justice
and Right.
Sumerian

Urukagina of Lagash
first historically known
Mesopotamian lawgiver.

Key Features of the

Mesopotamian Legal System (cont.)
King

Hammurabi (about 2100 BC)

deputized the administration of justice to the
royal priest class in the temples to a body of
royal secular judges, sitting commonly at the
great gate and market place of the city.
Code of Hammurabi refers back to King
Hammurabi. This is the earliest known national
code in the world; it is the most complete,
authentic and most advanced of ancient codes.
The Code of Hammurabi covers the whole scope
of law: crime, family, property, commerce. It
reflects agricultural and trading economy.

Key Features of the

Mesopotamian Legal System (cont.)
Different

Codes and their Insights on Divorce:

Code of Hammurabi
Code of Assur
Deuteronomy
(Please, see p. 33. Introduction to Law by Rufus
Rodriguez)
It

was during the time of King Hammurabi

where we find the earliest promissory note
(PN) it the oldest negotiable instrument in
the world. This manifest that at this time, we
can already find advanced ideas in
commercial law.

End of the Mesopotamian

Legal System
It

was during the time of Belshazzar, the

last native ruler of Babylonia, when the
Mesopotamian legal system was
supplanted.
Belshazzar lost his empire to Cyrus, king of
the new Persian nation.
Later, new invading races followed and by a
century before Christ, the Greek conquerors
supplanted the Mesopotamian legal system.
Hammurabis pillar-code was buried under
the rubbles of ages, until 2000 years later
when French explorer De Morgan found it.

HEBREW Legal System

Note: After the Egyptian and Mesopotamian legal

systems, the next oldest legal system is the Chinese
legal system. However, we are going to discuss the
Hebrew Legal System because of its proximate
affinity with the Mesopotamian Legal System.

The

early Hebrew civilization was

originally NOMADIC and
PASTORAL, then AGRICULTURAL
and only later COMMERCIAL.

HISTORY of the
Hebrew Legal System
In

Egypt and in Babylon, the Hebrew tribes

were a subject people.
About 2100 BC, the patriarch Abraham saw
King Hammurabi as an enemy in battle.
A thousand years later, Abraham and
Aaron appeared in the Court of Pharaoh
(King Rameses II, 1300 BC), asking for
their peoples freedom from bondage.
But it was during the time of the Hebrew
judge DANIEL that the Hebrew Legal
System developed.

HISTORY of the
Hebrew Legal System (cont.)
FIVE

well-defined STAGES of the

Hebrew Legal System during
DANIELs time:

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

MOSAIC PERIOD
CLASSIC PERIOD
TALMUDIC PERIOD
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
NATIONALIST PERIOD

MOSAIC PERIOD
Hebrew

government was a THEOCRACY

Authority and power were ascribed to God

Theos = god and Kratein = to rule
Hebrews attributed their laws to divine lawgiver.
Moses was said to have gone up Mount Sinai to
receive from YAHWEH the Ten Commandments.
How

was justice dispensed?

At first, personally dispensed by the tribal leader, then

as tribal population multiplied and political life
complex, justice was dispensed through an organized
hierarchy of courts.
In Exodus, Moses delegated justice to professional
judges.
Solomon was one example of a judge.

MOSAIC PERIOD (cont.)

From

this period comes:

Pentateuch (Five Books) made up

of narratives and codes, such as
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Dueteronomy.
Pentateuch is also known as TORAH or
Ancient Law.

CLASSIC PERIOD
Formed

by the legal practice developing

between 300 BC and AD 200.
In theory, the government was still a
THEOCRACY.
Where was the FUNCTION of JUSTICE vested?
Ceased to be a ROYAL ONE.
The Jewish people at this time had come under the
suzerainty of the Persian, Greek and Roman rulers.
However, in the Jewish internal government, supreme
authority (religious, social, political, legislative, and
judiciary) was vested in a Senate (Great Synhedrion
Greek for Assembly and Bet din hagadol in Hebrew
or high council). It consisted of 71 members.

CLASSIC PERIOD (cont.)

Under

the Roman sovereignty, the Jewish

people for two centuries preserved the
administration of their own law.
Their ruler, Herod, was still called king.
However, the convulsive political rebellions of the
Jews, after the time of Jesus, led the Roman
Emperor Vespasian to take rigorous revenge.
Jerusalem fell in AD 70 under the assault of Titus,
Vespasians son.
With the fall of Jerusalem, the Roman soldiers brought
to Rome the Ark of the Law, containing the Scroll of the
Law and the Seven Branched Candlestick.
Hebrew self-government ended, and their legal system
ceased to prevail.

TALMUDIC PERIOD
AD

200 to AD 500
Formed by the Talmud, i.e. reports
of all recorded cases and
commentators since about 300 BC,
digested in two authoritative
collections:
The Mishnah or the codified text (AD
200 in New Hebrew script)
Gemara or commentary (about AD
300-500, compiled in Aramaic script.

MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Began

at the dispersion of the Jewish

nation, culminating about AD 500 and
extended over the next thousand years.
Here, learned rabbi wrote treatises (in
Hebrew or Arabic), compiled codes, and
thus perpetuated the traditions of the law.
Maimonides is one of these rabbis; he lived in
North Africa in 1400s.
By this means, the common customs of
religious and family life and commercial
practice were kept alive, though the race was
scattered in many countries.

NATIONALIST PERIOD
From

AD 1600
Nationalism in Europe
amalgamated all races who lived
within given territories and
emphasized national languages.
During this period, the Talmud
was critically studied and
translated into the various
national language.

CHINESE Legal System

Third

earliest legal system of the world in

origin (before 2500 BC)
The only one that has survived continuously
to date a period of more than 4000 years
Note: The Chinese were described as the
worlds greatest pacifists. They were
patriotically exclusive and had never willingly
admitted strangers. They were contented with
themselves, their ancestors, their history, and
with their place in the world. They survived as
a people due to their strong clan and family
structure and their consequent conservatism.

CHINESE Legal System

(cont.)
CONFUCIUS

Chinas chief justice and

one of the worlds wisest men.
About 500 BC
His philosophy, which is not a religion,
covers the whole range of personal morality
and practical politics. And for 2400 years, it
pervades now Chinese life.
His philosophy rests on a passionate yet
rational respect for those conventions which
experience of the past has verified.
He teaches filial piety, which is the skillful
carrying out of the wishes of our forefathers.

CHINESE Legal System

(cont.)
GEORGE

PADEOUXs theory of
government and justice underlying the
Chinese legal system:
Since the dawn of its history, China has
believed in the existence of a natural order of
things, or law of Nature, including all parts of
the universe and adjusting them harmoniously
with one another. This order of Nature was not
made; it exists and is its own reason for
existence. Humanity is a part of it, and must
conform to it. And as the elements in this order
of nature are interdependent, whatever affects
one element reacts on the other also

CHINESE Legal System

(cont.)
CONSEQUENCE

of Padeouxs theory:

1) This natural law does not yield precedence to

positive law. Positive law ought to confine itself to
translating the natural law into written formulas. If
this translation is correct, the written law is good and
binding; but if not correct, then the written law is not
binding.
2) A marked contrast of the Confucian political
philosophy with Occidental systems is that its
fundamental maxim is emphatically a government
of men, not law.
The Chinese philosophy of government is that a good ruler
makes a happy people.
Chinese political science relies on the wisdom and
discretion of the ruler rather than on the text of laws.

CHINESE Legal System (cont.)

LEGISTS a school of philosophers who arose after
Confucius (about 200 BC).
Repudiated the doctrine of a government of men in favor of
government of laws.
But its dominance was brief and Confucius principle returned and
was enthroned in Chinese government and firmly maintained that
place during the next 2000 years.

3) Another notable consequence of the Confucian

philosophy is that conciliation and mutual
adjustment are looked upon as ideal elements of
justice.
4) The subordinate part played by the letter of the
law, and the legislation as such. The ruler should
frame the laws to voice the vast sentiments and
wants of the people not to impose his personal
will upon an unwilling people.

CHINESE Legal System (cont.)

LIST

OF CODES:

Chow Li or Regulations of Chow (1100 BC)

earliest code whose text is now extant.
Later, it was said to have been burnt
during the Burning of the Books.
Tang Dynastys code of 500 articles (AD
640)
Tartar emperor Timur (grandson of Kublai
Khan, about AD 1320) promulgated a code
of 2500 articles.
NOTE: None of these altered traditional laws
and customs of the Chinese.

CHINESE Legal System (cont.)

Kublai Khan introduced around AD 1269 an
alphabet and the laws above were
promulgated in this alphabet.
Ming Dynasty (about AD 1400) minister
Young Lo framed a new general code
Manchu Dynasty Ta Tsing Lu Li or Code of
Tsing became law about AD 1650 and
endured until the revolution of AD 1912.
This work consists of:
First: LU (The Code Proper) the text which never changes
Second: LI consists of the annual edicts and judicial
decisions, which interpreted the LU, made them flexible
and adapted them to progress, like the Common Law.

HINDU Legal System

Introductory:

During the last 3000 years, India had been

entered and dominated by alien races:
Indo Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Turks, Mongols,
English
After WWII, India was granted her independence
by England
Persians and Greeks took booty and left no traces
Turks and Mongols brought Mohammedan law
English brought unity, liberty, and honest
administration, but English law in India is mainly public
law, preserving in private law the various native customs
Indo-Aryans or Hindus (the first to come to India) are the
only race that developed a native system of law.

Two Branches of Hindu

System
(A)

BUDDHISM
(B) BRAHMANISM (or Hinduism)
Both are religion and law.

(A) BUDDHISM
Simply

means Enlightenment
Founded by Gautama Buddha, born in Nepal
between 600 and 500 BC.
Buddhas basic teaching is the compet of
Nirvana, which means roughly the peace of
mind and soul that comes to man after he has
overcome three cravings: those for riches,
sensual enjoyment and immortality.
In India, between AD 400 and 700, a complete
social and religious reaction took place.
Buddhism was eradicated by Brahmanistic
persecution (this is questionable).

(B) BRAHMANISM
Began

in the days of the first Aryan

invaders as a kind of nature worship; it
developed into what is certainly the most
complicated theology known to mankind.
It holds that one supreme being, Brahma,
exists in several or manifestations and is
the universal spirit which pervades
everything.
The typical law-book of the Brahman-Hindi
system is the famous Laws of Manu.
The most marked peculiarity of this system
was the Brahman-Hindu rules off caste.

(B) BRAHMANISM (cont.)

CASTE

is the institution which makes

India unique, the device breaking up
Indians into fixed categories that has no
approximation elsewhere in the world.
Every Hindu is born into a caste and his caste
determines his religious, social, economic, and
domestic life from the cradle to the grave.
No man may ever leave his caste, except to be
expelled.
It is impossible to progress from caste to caste.
Marriage between castes is foorbidden.

(B) BRAHMANISM (cont.)

19th

Century India India was a

congerie of hundreds of
principalities; in each one ruled
independently a maharajah.
The justice of the king was in theory
personal. It was partly done by
sending judicial officials to go on
circuit, but special classes of cases
were reserved for the kings personal
hearing and decisions in the
Audience Hall.

GREEK Legal System

Secular

in origin not conceived as part of religion

emanating from a divine source
The Greek race emerges into history as a hundred
or more local tribes, or clans, or city-states, each
independent, and each based more or less on
democracy. No single unified Greek nation yet.
The Homeric poems, shows the king at the head; he
was at once the chief priest, the chief judge and the
supreme warlord. BUT he was guided by a Council
of the chief men of the community whom he
consulted; and the decisions of the Council and King
deliberating together are brought before the
Assembly of the whole people (called the Agora
out of which democracy springs).

Greek Democratic Justice

Found

in Homers description:

The scenes depicted on the splendid

shield which Hephaestos made for
Achilles in the Trojan war wherein
the parties plead their cause before
the assembly of freemen; the chief
presides as umpire, then the wise
elders, skilled in the law, propose
various judgments; then the freemen
acclaim the best one and thus
decide the case.

Greek Democratic Justice (cont)

At

Athens, the Agora, or marketplace, the

Areopagus Hill, and the Pnyx Hill were the
chief places of interest for law and politics.
Usually, the Assembly meet on the hill
called Pnyx where statesmen like Pericles
delivered their speeches, under the warm
blue Greek sky.
Areopagus a special place for certain
trials for homicide; it was also here where
the Apostle Paul made his memorable
address to the people of Athens.

The Trial Method

Was

an advanced form of the

early one in the tribal assembly,
depicted by Homer on the shield.
A jury list of 6000 or more names
was made up.
For ordinary cases: a panel of
201 names drawn by lot, may
suffice.
For special cases: the panel of
1000 or 1500 or 2500 jurymen

The Trial Method (cont)

System

Instituted by Solon

Here, Athenian trial was entirely in the hands of nonprofessionals;

Presiding magistrate selected by lot;
Jurors were drafted from citizen body;
Any citizen could be prosecutor and the defendant
conducted his own case.
Magistrates supervised the preliminary proceeding;
During trial, the magistrate was no more than a chairman
of a public assembly; no presiding judge to declare the
law authoritatively;
No appeal
The citizens were the whole court judges of law and
facts without control. No jury deliberation.
After evidence, all casted their votes in the verdicturn.

The Trial Method (cont)

Thus,

essentially JURY SYSTEM

Another practice of Athenian law was to
allow defendant when condemned to
propose a lighter punishment than that
fixed by the accuser; and the judges were
required to choose one of the two sentences
(like what happened with Socrates).
However, it seems that the Greek had a
system of justice but hardly a system of law,
because: no codes, no reasoned decisions,
no doctrinal treaties, no professional judges
or jurist.

ROMAN Legal System

Broad

Sense: Roman law refers to the

entire legal order of the Roman state,
from the time of the Republic to the
Roman Empire.
It embraces public law, sacred law, private
law and customary law.

Restricted

Sense: Roman law means the

private law governing private rights,
interests, and transactions, excluding the
public law of Rome. It is in this sense that
Roman law is also known as Civil Law.

3 Periods in
the Development of Roman Law
The

Archaic Period or Infancy

Period from the founding of
Rome to the Twelve Tables (451
BC)
The Republican Period or Youth
Period from the Twelve Tables to
the founding of the Empire (45130 BC)
Maturity Period and Old Age or
Classical Period from the

To be continued...
Discussions

on the Roman Legal

System onwards will be next
meeting after the midterms.
Midterms August 8, 2011
Coverage: All reading materials up
to the Roman Legal System
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
and Essays

GOOD LUCK!
BREAK A LEG!
GOD BLESS!

CELTIC Legal System

Celts

or Kelts descendants of the

prehistoric glacial people, who about 600
BC invaded Gaul (now France and
Belgium) and the islands of Great Britain
Scotland, England and Wales, and
Ireland.
Three Periods in the Celtic Legal System
Political Independence before Julius Caezars
conquest of Gaul and Britain
Surviving Branches of the Celtic Legal System
the Welsh and the Irish
Final Dissolution of the Welsh and the Irish

The Three Periods

in the Celtic Legal System (cont.)
Political

Independence

Druidism acknowledged a god that delighted in

bloodshed; it taught of the immortality of the
soul, and inculcated the contempt of danger and
death.
The Druids possessed considerable administrative
power, for they kept the people in constant terror of
them. They are the dispenser of justice and decide
almost all disputes, both public and private.

Note how punishment may help in the administration of a

community.
Their power lay, not in physical or political force, but in their
influence as priests of religion and magic.
Since the Druids influenced the minds of the people, the Romans
found no other way of securing their conquests over any of the
Celtic nations than by exterminating the Druids.

The Three Periods

in the Celtic Legal System (cont.)
Surviving

Branches of the Celtic Legal System

IRELAND
1st Period: Heroic Age and Pagan Druidism

The law is transmitted only by memory of the Brehon judges.

2nd Period: Christianity and formulation of the written rules of

law, though the efforts of St. Pathric.
3rd Period: Danish and the Norman invasions gradually
paralyzed all political progress, but the Brehon jurists
continue to practice their law.
4th Perioid: The political ruin of Ireland is followed by the
disappearance of the Brehon law.
WELSH

Welsh Code written down about AD 900 this code has

traces of Roman law, specifically Justinians famous line:

Three things the law enjoys upon all: to live honestly; to cause no
vexation or harm to another; and to render to every one his due.

The Three Periods

in the Celtic Legal System (cont.)
Final

Dissolution of the Welsh and the Irish

The end came by force of conquest, first of

Welsh. Llewellyn the Great tried to unite the
Celtic tribal factions of the people and
attempted to save the ancient laws of Wales
through the Magna Carta.
However, its final extinction was the work of
the Tudor Dynasty. Henry VIII united Wales
completely to England and decreed that only
English laws would apply even with Wales.
As to the Irish faction, in 1613, James I called
an Irish parliament, and this body went through
the form of declaring the Brehon law abolished.

SLAVIC Legal System

The

Four Principal Slavic Nations:

Russia, the Serbs, the Bohemian (or Czech), the Polish

Four

Stages in Russias Legal Evolution:

The establishment from 9th century of a ruling class of

independent princes possessing all the land and controlling the
people on the land.
The submergence of the country (13 th Cent.) by the Mongols
giving new directions to govt.
The emergence (16th Cent.) of the absolute rule of Moscow tsars
and the final enserfment of the mass of people.
The passing of the old order and the establishment of communism
in 1917.

Tolstoys

description of the first three stages of the legal

history of Russia: Rules established by men, who have
control of organized power and which are enforced against
the recalcitrant by the lash, prison, and even murder.

SLAVIC Legal System

(cont.)
A

real legal system arrived for Russia fifty

years later under the wise and conscientious
Emperor Nicholas I, who authorized Michael
Speransky to assemble a commission of
jurists and collected and printed the
materials
called
Svod
Zakonof
or
collection of laws.
March revolution of 1917 witnessed the
transition of govt from the Russian Tsar to the
Kerensky
provisional
govt.
of
the
intelligentsia to the rise of the Bolsheviks,
who established the communist government.

SLAVIC Legal System

(cont.)
The

Three Essential Facts about the Kind of

Government the 1936 Constitution provided:

1st It is designed to guarantee the socialist

economy. The socialization is applied only to what
are called the basic means of production. (Please,
see p. 74 on ownership)
2nd The Bolsheviks do not believe in what they call
division of powers in their govt. Power rests into
the Soviet President of the Supreme Council.
3rd The Civil Code of Soviet Russia was adopted in
1922. The very existence of a civil code in Soviet
Russia is something of an anomaly, and is explained
only by the fact that the abolition of private
property is not yet complete.

GERMANIC Legal System

Four

Stages of the Germanic Legal

System:

Prehistoric Period of the Vikings & the Goths

Period of Goth Migration south and west and
their establishment in the provinces of the
Roman empire, ending with the formation of
the
great
Germanic
empire
under
Charlemagne.
Fusion of races and later by the localization
of the law.
Transformation by Roman and Papal law

GERMANIC Legal System (cont)

Germanic

justice, as it emerges into history, is

characterized as purely secular.
The justice of the whole tribe was democratic.
The settlement of disputes between clans, was done
at the assembly of the people, the Al-ting, where all
the free men, armed, meet periodically, by a lunar
calendar. Then the courts meet on the Hill of Laws
where the parties to a dispute pleaded their causes
before the assembly. Then one or more of the Lawspeakers, venerable or clever men, propounded a
decision; then the assembly, by their shouts, or with
clash of sword on shield, approved or disapproved
the proposals of the law speakers for the most
steemed sort of applause was the clash of weapons.

GERMANIC Legal System (cont)

The

Franks or freemen adopted a

system of laws known as the Lex
Salica or the Code of the Salic
Franks.
The Chief Difference between:
Roman Laws
Salic Laws/
Laws of the Teutons
Were designed for the good Gave great attention to
of the state as a whole.
securing justice for the
individual.

GERMANIC Legal System (cont)

Code

or Edict of the Lombards where the modern idea of a

trust could be traced to.
AD 650 the laws of the Goths and Romans were compiled
and called Forum Judicum or Fuero Juzgo.
Charlemagnes
first
parliamentary
degrees
called
capitularies was established and sent his personal envoys
on circuit to inspect the course of justice. This personal
envoys were called adjustitias faciendas, and this method
served later to develop the Anglican institution of trial by
jury.
Emperor Maximillian in AD 1495 established the Imperial
Chamber of Justice, as a central court of appeal, and
provided that one-half of its sixteen judges should always be
learned doctors of the new Roman law, the sun was setting
on the power of the old Germanic schoeffen, or lay-judges
in Germany, their last stronghold and the doom of the pure
Germanic legal system was sealed.

JAPANESE Legal System

1st

Period (AD 600-1200)

Jushichi Kempo or Seventeen
Maxims of the royal prince-regent
Umayado or Shotoku Taishi.
The Seventeen Maxims of Shotoku
are essentially not rules of law, but a
short code of political and social
morality.
Politically,
they
foreshadowed
the
consolidation of the new territories under
a single royal power.
Socially, they represented the adoption of

JAPANESE Legal System

(cont.)
From

1200-1600, great feudal families grew

and fought one another. The rule of the
intellectuals at the palace in the capital was
finally shattered by the growing power of the
rich military barons, who gradually acquired a
semi-independence.
In the 1100s, the palace intellectuals lost their
power. National sovereignty was nominally left
in the person of the Emperor of Kyoto, the
western capital, but the complete political
power was now vested in the Regency, based
on military feudal tenure, and located in the
East at Kamakura.

JAPANESE Legal System

(cont.)
2nd

Period the Rise of the Shogunate

(1192).

Minamoto Yoritomo first typical figure of

this period; he sought to be named Military
Regent (Shogun). He created the Monjusho
(Office of Inquiry and Decision), essentially
a court of justice.
Jo-Yei Shikimoku (Ordinance of the period Jo
Yei) a political code promulgated in AD
1225. Its main purpose was to regulate the
new
military-feudal
regime,
and
it
contained few rules touching private rights.

JAPANESE Legal System

(cont.)
3rd

Period The Tokugawa Dynasty of the Regency (16001850)

Regent Tokugawa Iyeyasu came into power in the early

1600s.
Under the Tokugawa Dynasty, Japan reached a permanent
state of political equilibrium, economic prosperity and social
quiet.
The Tokugawa Regency provided within its own extensive
domain a model of administration for the fiefs of the greater
semin-independent barons. Japan then enjoyed a complete
peace, internal and external.
The Tokugawa Supreme Court of Yedo was given a federal
original jurisdiction, for the suits between parties from
different provinces. It plays a confirmatory role in the
decisions of the barons court for death sentences. Often
consulted with a view to uniformity of law. Yedo laws must be
followed in all provinces.

JAPANESE Legal System

(cont.)
4th

Period End of Japanese Seclusion and Shogunate

In 1853, Commodore Perry came with his American fleet and

demanded the rights of trading. Other nations then followed.
Treaties were forged, where the Japanese gladly conceded to
the foreign nations the power and duty of extra-territoriality,
i.e., jurisdiction over the foreign nationals, as the price for
refusing general rights of settlement throughout the land.
Because of the seeming subservience of the Regency to the
foreign nations, the powerful semi-independent barons
rebelled. Two great families or clans rose into prominence
the SATSUMAS and CHOSHUS, who abolished the
SHOGUNATE, and resurrected the emperor as the supreme
embodiment of power.
A new emperor ascended to the throne, a BOY named
Mutsuhito, who was reinstated in 1868 and who signed a
Charter Oath. This is now called the MEIJI RESTORATION.

JAPANESE Legal System

(cont.)
In

1889, a written constitution was drafted by Count

Ito, Japans greatest statesman of the last generation.
Note that until its defeat in World War II, Japat had for
at least a thousand years been a military state a
totalitarian state, obsessed by what it conceived as a
divine and imperial mission to conquer East Asia.
After its unconditional surrender to the Allies in 1945,
Japan has been placed under the supervision of an
administrative commission set up by the Allies with
the end in view, among others, of democratizing
Japan.
The emperor has, however, been allowed to remain, as the
symbolic head of the nation.

ANGLO-AMERICAN Legal System

(a)

Common Law in England

The foundations of the Common Laws were laid

during the reign of William of Normandy, but it was
during the times of Henry I that the formative
period of the Common law may be said to have
been ushered in.
Up to the time of Edward I, we see the evolution of
the royal courts, whose judgments began to build
up the Common Law, and the growth of procedure
characterized by the use of system of writs, the
introduction of inquest as a mode of trial, the
beginning of written pleadings and advocacy.
Writs the method by which litigation was drawn
into royal tribunals.

ANGLO-AMERICAN Legal System

(cont.)
System

of Equity began during the reign

of Edward I when petitions to the king
were referred to the Chancellor. Because
of the limited jurisdiction of the common
law courts, the king had to refer some
cases to the Chancellor.

Some Famous Maxims of Equity.

1) He who comes to Equity must come with clean
hands.
2) Equity will not suffer a wrong to be without
remedy.
3) Delay defeats Equity.
4) Equity looks to the intent rather than to the form.

ANGLO-AMERICAN Legal System

(cont.)
The

Chief Legal Events from 17th to 19th Century or

the Flowering of the Common Law System:

a) constitution developments such as the inauguration

of the sovereignty of Parliaments and its transformation
into a democratic body, the establishment of the
doctrines of the supremacy of the law, independence of
the judiciary and inviolability of civil liberties and the
development of the famous writ of habeas corpus.
b) the incorporation of the Law of Merchants into
Common Law.
c) the establishment of stare decisis as a definite rule.
d) the appearance of law reports.
e) the reorganization of the judicial system.
f) procedural developments.

ANGLO-AMERICAN Legal System

(cont.)
g) the organization of the law
practitioners into a dual system.
h) the appearance of other great
legal figures who exercised a great
influence in the development of the
Common law.
i)
the
cospomolitanization
and
expansion of this system.
j) the beginning of the codification
movement.

ANGLO-AMERICAN Legal System

(cont.)
(b)

Common Law in the United States

Remember that the US used to be divided into 13 colonies

under the control of England.
But in 1774, a Continental Congress, as representatives of the
people of the colonies, declared their independence.
But the Common Law had followed the English colonies. At
present, except for the Louisiana, the system of jurisprudence
that now prevails in the American states is that which has
been derived from the Common Law of England.
A decisive factor in the survival of the Common Law in
America was the influence of Blackstones Commentaries.
Some Famous American Legal Luminaries:

John Marshal Chief Justice of the USSC 1801-1835, the first to

proclaim the doctrine of judicial supremacy.
Joseph Story a prolific textbook writer, especially on Conflict of Laws.
Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote Common Law, an American book on
legal history or philosophy.

CATHOLIC (PAPAL) Legal System

and the CANON LAW
AD

800-1200 The Popes had begun to acquire a

temporal authority under Pepin le Bref and
Charlemagne, from the donations of territory made
by those princes, and they were now gradually
extending spiritual jurisdiction over all Christian
kingdoms.
Interchange of Roles:
Kings, dukes, and counts neglected their temporal duties
and shut themselves up in cloister, and spent their lives in
prayers and penance.
Ecclesiastics were employed in all the departments of
secular govt, and they alone conducted all public measures
and state negotiations, which of course, they directed to
the great objects of advancing the interests of the church,
and establishing the paramount authority of the Holy See.

CATHOLIC (PAPAL) Legal System

and the CANON LAW (cont.)
Pope

Nicholas I (AD 859)

proclaimed to the whole world his

paramount judgment in appeal from

the sentences of all spiritual
judicatories;
power of assembling councils of the
Church, and of regulating it by the
canons of those councils;
the right of exercising his authority
by legates in all the kingdoms of

CATHOLIC (PAPAL) Legal System

and the CANON LAW (cont.)
In

AD 961, Otho the Great received the Imperial crown from the
Pope. Thus, from that time on, the Emperors were considered as
the temporal head, while the Popes as spiritual head, of all
Christendom.

All Christian countries seemed to have been included in one grand

republic.

The

Contest between the Church and the Empire began with

Henry IV, emperor of Germany and Pope Gregory VII.

The Pope here sought to raise the spiritual above the temporal authority
in all the states of Europe.

Innocent

III at the beginning of the 13 th century established the

powers of the Popedom on a settled basis, a positive
acknowledgment of the papal supremacy, or the right
principalitier et finaliter to confer the imperial crown.

Without the Popes approval, no emperor may be recognized as

legitimate. Its clergy were immune from the criminal justice of the state.
Legislation covered the cradle to the grave.

CATHOLIC (PAPAL) Legal System

and the CANON LAW (cont.)
Decretals

of Isidore of AD 800s, papal supreme jurisdiction

was re-enforced here.
Decretum of Gratian where Canon law originated.
Composed of the legislation and decisions of Popes, after
accumulating for seven centuries in thousands of separate
decrees, rescripts, bulls, and council-resolutions. Compiled by
a monk named Gratian at the University of Bologna in AD
1140.

This created Canon (or papal) law as an independent system.

This has become a strong legal support in the Popes rivalry with the
Emperors.
Canon law began to be taught and became the legal buttress of the
papal theocracy and remained the ruling code till the Reformation.
Under the Roman state, the religious laws the jus sacrum, jus
pontificium were not a distinct body of legislation.
The Church encroached more and more upon the jurisdiction of the
civil courts.

CATHOLIC (PAPAL) Legal System

and the CANON LAW (cont.)
Three

Parts of the Decretum ofr Gratian:

1st Distinctiones: treats of the sources of canon

law, councils and the mode of their convention, the
authority of decretals, the election of the Roman
pontiff, the election and consecration of bishops,
the papal prerogative, papal legates, the ordination
of the clergy, clerical celibacy, and kindred topics.
2nd Causae: discusses different questions of
procedures, such as the ordination and trial of
bishops and the lower clergy, excommunication,
simony, clerical and church property, marriage,
heresy, magic and penance.
3rd is devoted to the sacraments of the eucharist
and baptism and the consecration of churches.

CATHOLIC (PAPAL) Legal System

and the CANON LAW (cont.)
Corpus

Juris Canonici a series of collections,

which constitutes the official body of canon law,
composed of the following: Gratians Decretum,
Gregory IXs Decretales, the Sext, the
Clementines, and the Extravagantes of John
XXII.

The canon law attempted the task of legislating in

detail all phases of human life clerical,
ecclesiastical, social, domestic.
The Church has not only its own code and its
specifically religious penalties, but also its own
prisons.
The canon law justified wars against the enemies of
religion and the persecution of heretics.

CATHOLIC (PAPAL) Legal System

and the CANON LAW (cont.)
Rise

of Patriotic Nationality and

Legislative Independence throughout
the West of Europe:

The reign of Edward I (AD 1300) was

marked by the rise of nationalism and
unified legislation.
Subsequently, the Reformers like Luther
and Calvin raised their voices in protest
against the legalistic tyranny of the Pope.
At Wittenberg in 1520, Luther threw a copy
of the canon law, the one representing the
infallibility of the pope.

CATHOLIC (PAPAL) Legal System

and the CANON LAW (cont.)
Council

of Trent attended by over 300 bishops,

ambassadors, cardinals, and other delegates. It
covered 18 years. Its legislation ranged over the
whole system of Canon Law. But by the time this
Council ended, the Protestant seceders had
broken the churchs universal power.
The national secular law in each country of Europe
was thenceforth to become supreme and
exclusive. The temporal jurisdiction of the papal
courts was in time abolished by the various
national legislatures.
Notable here was the break of England under King
Henry VIII from the Roman Catholic Church. The King is
the only supreme in earth of the church of England.

CATHOLIC (PAPAL) Legal System

and the CANON LAW (cont.)
Codex

Juris Canonici was promulgated by Pope

Benedict XV in May 27, 1917. This work, unlike
the old Corpus Juris Canonici, is not a compilation,
but a genuine codification one of the modern
worlds greatest masterpieces of composition.
Second Vatican Council was opened by Pope
John XXIII on January 25, 1959 and opened the
Church to the world. The same Council revisited
the old Code and in 1977, Pope Paul VI started the
formulation of the new Code. And on January 25,
1983, Pope John Paul II promulgated the present
Code of Canon Law, which has the force of laws
for the whole Latin Church.

MOHAMMEDAN Legal
System
Is

based on Islam, founded by Mohammed

(or Mahomet) on AD 600.
Not Mohammedanism but Islam meaning
submission to one God.
Islam aspired to be a comprehensive system of
human life and social order religion, morality,
politics, and law.
Islams basis: Revelation, respects Hebrew
traditions of reverence for Moses and Abraham,
mission of Jesus of Nazareth.
Central Thought in the Teaching of Mahomet:
There is no God but the true God and Mahomet
is his prophet.

MOHAMMEDAN Legal System

(cont.)
Sources

of Islamic Law:

1st the Koran (literally the book

which ought to be read) or word of
God, as written down by Mohammed;
2nd the sayings and conduct of
Mohammed;
3rd the treaties of jurist, elaborately
developing from those fundamentals
the legal rules applicable to all the
affairs of life.

The end
God

bless you!