Civil law (also known as Roman law) and customary law can be considered the most widespread in the world: civil law, because it is most widespread by the landmass and by the population as a whole, and customary law, because it is applied by the greatest number of people compared to a single civil law system. [2] [3] [4] If Paris wants to be an international centre for commercial disputes, the France could widely consider the common law and the use of English, the standard language for international commercial and financial contracts. In fact, established arbitral tribunals currently operate in exactly the same way (English-language and common law procedures). However, for this overall project to be feasible, the France would have to make significant investments in legal and human resources. We must also remember that Ireland and Cyprus apply customary law in their arbitration and have access to the common European area of justice. Like the financial sector, the legal services sector is subject to competition to attract clients. In this sense, Paris is a center that enters the fight in this competition. It remains to be seen whether and where legal services will eventually evolve. The Islamic legal system, consisting of Sharia (Islamic law) and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), is the most widespread religious legal system and one of the three most common legal systems in the world, along with common law and civil law. [22] It is based both on divine law derived from the hadith of the Qur`an and the Sunnah and on the judgments of ulema (jurists) who use the methods of ijma (consensus), qiyas (analogous conclusion), ijtihad (research) and urf (general practice) to derive fatwā (legal opinion). An ulema had to qualify for an ijazah (doctorate in law) in a madrasa (law school or college) before he could issue Fatwā. [23] During the Islamic Golden Age, classical Islamic law may have had an influence on the development of the common law[6] and several civil law institutions.
[24] Sharia law regulates a number of Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, although most countries only use Sharia law in addition to national legislation. It can refer to all aspects of civil law, including property rights, contracts and public law. In addition, the European database N-Lex links most of the official national databases. N-Lex is an ongoing joint project led by the European Publications Office and the participating national governments. It currently allows you to consult the laws of 27 Member States. As lawyers know, the legal systems of countries around the world generally fall into one of two main categories: common law systems and civil law systems. There are about 150 countries that have mainly civil law systems, while there are about 80 common law countries. Common law is practised in Canada (except Quebec), Australia, New Zealand, most of the United Kingdom (England, Wales and Northern Ireland), South Africa, Ireland, India (except Goa), Pakistan, Hong Kong, the United States (at the state and territory level, with the exception of Louisiana and Puerto Rico), in Bangladesh and many other places. Several others have transformed the common law system into a mixed system; For example, Nigeria operates largely under a common law system in the southern states and at the federal level, but also incorporates religious law in the northern states. English common law is the preferred choice of law in commercial and financial contracts. This strengthens London`s position as a global centre for the settlement of international disputes.
Brexit will change the UK`s position in the legal landscape of the European Union. However, these changes will not necessarily call into question the dominance of English common law. However, Europe`s common legal heritage was obscured by the separate development of continental and English legal traditions (from the 11th century), the rise of sovereign nation-states claiming exclusive jurisdiction over their territory (mainly in the 17th century), and legal nationalism (in the 19th century). At the end of the 20th century, however, the economic integration promoted by the European Community led to a renewed interest in European law. This has been done at the same time as the weakening of some of the distinctive features of civil law and common law traditions in modern bureaucratic states. For example, the pervasive growth of modern regulatory economic legislation and the administrative authorities and courts that oversee it has reduced both the central reliance on comprehensive codes in civil law systems and the organic evolution of jurisprudence in common law systems.