Legal Traditions
Legal traditions play an important role in the development of international law and justice. Comparativists for criminal justice study these traditions with the intent of finding a way to combine the views of different traditions towards a single view that allows for the successful development of international law. Many comparativists believe that the more states with similar legal views the more likely it is to be able to create international laws that please all. Reichel (2005) identifies four major legal traditions that each have their own respective body of laws:
- Common law is found particularly in countries that are current or former members of the British Empire.
- Civil law countries include most of continental Europe and various states in South America and Africa.
- Socialist law is essentially civil law with major modifications from Marxist-Leninist ideology. It is currently only used in China and a few other contemporary Communist states, but has had enormous influence on Russia and the former USSR.
- Islamic law is religiously-inspired law used in Muslim countries.
Read more about this topic: Comparative Criminal Justice
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