Religious law
No legal system can be properly understood without investigating its religious roots. Indeed, the Roman Catholic Church has the longest, continuously operating legal in the Western world. The influence of religion is palpable in the case of Western legal systems.
In Europe in the 12th century, ecclesiastical law played an important role in a number of fields. Ecclesiastical courts claimed jurisdiction over a wide range of matters, including heresy, fornication, homosexuality, adultery, defamation, and perjury. Canon law still governs several churches, especially the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church , and the Anglican Communion of Churches.
The rise of secularism has not completely extinguished the impact of religious law. The jurisdiction of Western legislatures and courts over exclusively religious matters is frequently curtailed, and many legal systems incorporate religious law or delegate to religious institutions matters of a domestic nature.
While a number of prominent religious legal traditions co-exist with state systems of law , some have actually been adopted as state law. The most significant are Talmudic, Islamic, and Hindu law. All three derive their authority from a divine source: the exposition of religious doctrine as revealed in the Talmud, Koran, and Vedas respectively
All have influenced secular law in a variety of ways: e.g. Talmudic law had a significant impact on Western commercial, civil, and criminal law. In addition to common and civil law systems, it is possible to identify four other significant legal traditions.
