3. Distinctive Features of Legal Systems of Countries of Latin America

In the domain of private law the legal systems of Latin American countries can be divided into two groups. To the first group should be relegated the legal systems which almost entirely accepted the French Code Civil and confined themselves merely to a translation thereof. These include the civil codes of Haiti (1825), Bolivia (1830/1975), Dominican Republic (1845/1884), and with certain exceptions, Mexico (1870/1884,1928/1932). The second group comprises the Civil Code of Chile (1855) which, despite certain borrowings from the French Code Civil, just as the Argentine Civil Code, is a fully autonomous and original creation of South American legislation.

What distinguishes Latin American law from the Romano- Germanic system? Above all, the sphere of public law. If, having gained State independence the countries of Latin America in their searches for a model of private law turned towards Europe, they found their constitutional model in the United States. The constitutions of these countries borrowed the American form of rule-a presidential republic and other constitutional institutions. The young States of Latin America had no other choice: the United States Constitution was at the time the sole written Constitution in force. The acceptance of the American constitutional model also makes it possible to speak about the dualism of Latin American law, the combining of the European and American models. The special attention of the constitutions of Latin American countries to judicial control over the constitutionality of laws, augmented by the use of such procedures (for example, amparo, borrowed from Spanish law) unknown to the American model of constitutional judicial control, are linked with the last.

Four Latin American States are federations: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela. In characterising the law of these countries, one should take into account the delimitation of competence between the federation and its members. One may say that the basic competence belongs to the federation.

Legal scholars stress that when studying the political system of Latin American countries one should not in many situations identify legal forms with social realities. It is evident that the situation common to all countries resounds sharply with respect to Latin American countries especially because periods of military regimes, extraordinary situations, and so on occupy a significant place in the life of those countries.

Latin America today is evidently freed from the passive imitation of foreign politico-legal models. The trend intensifies in favour of institutions and the development of State-legal and socio-political institutions of local and national origin. The texts of constitutions have become specific and more flexibly take into account the changing socio­economic conditions, as well as the political situation in the world in general and in Latin America in particular.

Regional and the simultaneous mutual legal influence of the countries of Latin America is intensifying. Brazil is striving for regional cooperation for a view to the formation of a Latin American Commonwealth of Nations.

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