CHAPTER 4  MODERN LEGAL SYSTEMS

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1) What is a system of law? According to Russian scholars it is the internal structure of law defined by 
social relations. It is expressed by unity and coordination of all acting legal norms and their 
implementation in branches and institutions of law. 
The characteristics of the legal system are: 

reflection of the existing system of social relations; 

unity and consistency of all norms of law; 

division into relatively independent parts – branches, sub-branches and institutions of 
law; 

close connections between different elements of a law system; 

stability and dynamism. 
2) When rules and laws become systematized inside one country they make national legal 
systems and these systems can be classified into families according to their main features. 
There are about 200 legal systems in the world. Throughout the history of mankind there were 
various attempts to classify them. In the past, legal systems have often been grouped by geography, 
history, culture, race, language, religion, or official ideology. Nowadays, scholars define the following 
legal blocks: 

national legal systems; 

legal families; 

groups of legal families.
3) Although each modern system has its own individuality, it is possible to group many of them 
into legal “families”. The existing legal systems of nearly all countries are generally modeled upon 
elements of several main types: 

civil law (Roman-Germanic legal family);

common law (Anglo-Saxon legal system); 

religious law; 

customary law; 

mixed or pluralistic law.
4) The additional type of the legal system – international law – can be referred to as the law 
which governs the conduct of independent nations in their relationships. Its part, the law system of the 
European Community, has become the first example of the newly created supranational legal system. 

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