Mixed Jurisdictions Worldwide: The Third Legal Family

Approximately 150 million people worldwide live in legal systems in which there is both a common law and a civil law content, yet there has been little comparative study of the experience of these 'mixed jurisdictions'. Here, the author considers these jurisdictions in a comparative framework, which includes their founding and raisons d'être, as well as the cultural divisions of the jurists and the evolutionary tendencies of their common and civil law components. In addition, he examines the internal contradictions between Anglo-American judicial institutions, methodologies and procedures, and the substantive civil law. The book argues that the legal systems of such far-flung and diverse cultures as the Philippines, Quebec, Scotland and South Africa have many unique and fruitful points of comparison. The conclusion is that these mixed jurisdictions form a closely related 'Third Legal Family' with cohesive traits and tendencies.