15. Legal systems

Legal system – it’s the set of laws of a country and the ways in which they are interpreted and enforced.

There are hundreds of legal systems in the world. At the global level, international law is of great importance, whether created by the practice of sovereign states or by agreement among them in the form of treaties and other accords. Some transnational entities such as the European Union have created their own legal structures. At the national level there are over 180 sovereign states in the United Nations Organization. Many of these are federal or confederal, and their constituent parts may well have their own law.

Legal system — one of the central concepts of comparative jurisprudence; represents more or less wide set of national legal systems which unite a community of sources of the right, the basic concepts, structure of the right and a historical way of its formation.

The most known is classification of the French scientist René David [2] according to which are allocated:

Classification (according to French scientist René David):

-Romano-germanic legal system, -Anglo-Saxon legal system, -Religious legal system (Muslim, Judaic, etc.), -Socialist legal system, -Traditional legal system, -some other legal system.

	Commonlaw	Civillaw	Socialistlaw	Islamiclaw
Othernames	Anglo-American, English, judge-made, legislation from the bench	Continental, Romano-Germanic	Social	Religiouslaw, Sharia
Sourceoflaw	Caselaw, statutes/legislation	Statutes/legislation	Statutes/legislation	Religiousdocuments, caselaw
Lawyers	Judges act as impartial referees; lawyers responsible for presenting case	Judgesdominatetrials	Judgesdominatetrials	Secondaryrole
Judges' qualifications	Experienced lawyers (appointed or elected)	Careerjudges	Careerbureaucrats, Partymembers	Religious as well as legal training
Degreeofjudicialindependence	High	High; separate from the executive and the legislative branches of government	Verylimited	Ranges from very limited to high[14][15]
Juries	Providedattriallevel	May adjudicate in conjunction with judges in serious criminal matters	Often used at lowest level	Allowed in Maliki school,[15] not allowed in other schools
Policy-makingrole	Courts share in balancing power	Courts have equal but separate power	Courts are subordinate to the legislature	Courts and other government branches are theoretically subordinate to the Shari'a. In practice, courts historically made the Shari'a, while today, the religious courts are generally subordinate to the executive.
Examples	Australia, UK (except Scotland), India (except Goa), Nigeria, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, USA (except Louisiana), Canada (except Quebec), New Zealand, Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh	All European Union states (except UK and Ireland), All of continental Latin America (except Guyana and Belize),Quebec, All of East Asia (except Hong Kong), Congo, Azerbaijan, Kuwait, Iraq, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Madagascar, Lebanon, Switzerland, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand	Soviet Union and other communist regimes	Many Muslim countries have adopted parts of Sharia Law. Examples include Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, UAE, Oman, Sudan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Yemen.

The legal system of the Republic of Kazakhstan, along with legal systems of Italy, France, Germany, Austria and other countries, belongs to the Roman-German (continental) legal system. As opposed to the Anglo-Saxon legal system (England, the USA), where judicial precedents are the main legal sources, Roman-German legal system has a single hierarchically structured system of enacted law sources. Written constitution (fundamental law) plays the essential role among the law sources in the Roman-German legal system, and has the supreme legal force. In accordance with the article 4 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan, the Law in the Republic is made of the norms of the Constitution, laws which conform to the Constitution, other normative legal acts, international treaties and other obligations of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as normative resolutions of the Constitutional Council and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan