Law is the main element on which absolutely all world powers are built. This thesis was put forward by philosophers of the modern era. They believed that the state is not a political, but a purely legal structure. Thus, the institutions of law are those regulators of public relations, without which it is simply impossible to build a state structure. The implementation of these institutions is carried out by creating a specific regime - the rule of law, which allows you to highlight important homogeneous aspects. Similar features of law exist in every country. Their appearance directly depends on many factors: the historical process, the territorial location, the mentality of people, cultural traditions, etc. In the theory of state and law, scientists systematized the general and heterogeneous aspects of the law of every state throughout the world. It led to the unification of the most similar legal systems into entire families.
The legal system is the main element of the legal family
It should be noted that legal families are based on the allocation and comparison of legal systems of different states. In each such system, scientists identified the most similar and different points, which helped to conduct a general differentiation. The legal system is called the three-element structure, consisting of a system of law, legal culture and legal implementation. In turn, each of these elements is further subdivided into some components, for example:
1. The system of law consists of industry, sub-industry, institution and norms.
2. Legal culture - a legal idea, deed, institution, etc. The main regulatory aspect of legal culture is the legal consciousness of the population, which manifests itself in the level of subordination to laws and recognition of the rule of law.
3. Realization of the right - use, compliance, enforcement.
Based on the internal structure and other features, scientists include various legal systems in legal families. It should be noted that the doctrine of legal families appeared in the Renaissance, but the greatest peak of development began in the XX century.
Legal family concept
The legal family is a set of legal systems of different states, which are united taking into account certain criteria. The theory was first put forward in 1667 by the German scientist Leibniz. He argued that the law of some countries allows them to be combined into separate groups. Each of them will be based on similarities and differences in the development process of individual states.
It is on the basis of this theory that a modern concept of the legal family was developed. Today, the main criteria for separation of families are:
- sources of law;
- terminological, methodological basis of the legal system;
- features of the legal system;
- historical characteristics of the state;
- the role of the courts;
- development and origin of the legal system.
Of course, any legal system is unique, but scientists based on the above criteria have learned to highlight similar aspects. The development of the doctrine of legal families greatly influenced the development of scientific knowledge in the field of the study of states. In addition, there was a real opportunity to know the state in their relationship with each other.
Classification of legal families
All legal families were formed in the 20th century, but there are a large number of approaches to their classification, each of which has been put forward by a certain scientist. David was the “pioneer” in comparative jurisprudence , who formed the following classification in the 60s:
1) the Romano-Germanic, Anglo-Saxon and socialist legal family;
2) religious, Hindu and Far Eastern.
Today, this classification is significantly outdated. After all, David took as a basis only the historical factor. A different point of view on the problems of classifying families had a scientist by the name of Ketz. He distinguished the following families:
1) romance;
2) German;
3) Scandinavian;
4) Anglo-Saxon;
5) Far Eastern, etc.
In addition, scientists Behruz and Osakwe put forward completely different classifications. In the modern theory of state and law, the following main legal families are distinguished:
1. Romano-Germanic.
2. Anglo-Saxon.
3. Religious.
4. Traditional.
5. Far Eastern.
In addition to the historical factor, this classification is based on the features of legal technology, which is a rather important aspect in the modern world.
Romano-Germanic family
It should be remembered that there is always a legal basis for a family of any type, regardless of territorial framework. It is formed from those sources that influenced the development of the legal family as a whole. The Romano-Germanic legal family is a system of the whole of continental Europe. Its source is the reception of Roman private law. The normative act is recognized as the main source of law in the states of the Romano-German legal family. All branches of law are included in two groups: public and private law. This allows you to more accurately and efficiently regulate public relations. The vast majority of countries in this system have written constitutions. In the Romano-Germanic legal family, there are a number of “branches” that were formed taking into account the differences in the historical process in different parts of continental Europe. Thus, scientists distinguish subsystems, groups in the Romano-German legal family.
Subgroups of the Romance-Germanic Family
Scientists today distinguish only three main subgroups:
1. Romance-legal group, which includes the legal systems of the following states: Belgium, France, Spain and Romania, the former colonies of France.
2. The group of German law includes the legal systems of Germany, Greece, Monaco, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
3. The Scandinavian legal group is represented by countries such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland.
As we see, the characteristic of the legal families of the Roman-Germanic type was carried out on the basis of territorial location, features of historical and cultural development, as well as the distinctive aspects of the elements of legal systems. Nevertheless, all the subgroups presented belong to the Romano-German legal family, and their selection is purely nominal.
Common Law - Anglo-American Legal Family
The Anglo-American legal family, or common law, is dominant in Great Britain and its former colonies, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, etc. England can rightfully be called the ancestor of this system, because the customs of this particular country dominate in English American legal family.
Judicial precedent is the legal basis of the Anglo-American family. Unlike the countries of the Romanesque seven, a precedent in England and other related countries is given the state role. It should be noted that the precedent is considered as a custom, a contract. He plays a paramount role in the process of development and formation of the law of the countries of the Anglo-American family. Thus, the courts, in fact, form the law.
As we know, in the countries of the Roman-Germanic family, the courts play the role of law enforcement. Nevertheless, in recent years, the role of the regulatory act in the UK and in other countries of the family has increased significantly. Some scientists today put it on a par with judicial precedent, they want this issue to remain controversial.
Religious law
A religious family is a set of legal systems where the main source of the formation and development of law is religion in the form of holy scripture. It follows that the legal status of a religious-type family directly corresponds to religious norms. The family of religious law is currently developed in the Islamic and Jewish states, although the trend of identifying religion and law has been declining recently. In European countries, religious law did not take root even in the Middle Ages, because the church had power exclusively in the spiritual sphere.
Traditional Law Family
The traditional legal family is the most ancient and almost extinct. It is still found in some states of Central, South Africa, as well as Asia and Oceania. Some Australian tribes live by traditional law.
The essence of this legal family is that the most important social relations are regulated by customs formed in the tribal community.
Moreover, a normative act, judicial precedent and other sources of law do not play a significant role. For the most part this is a subjective right. As mentioned earlier, the traditional legal family is the most ancient and practically extinct form of regulation of society’s behavior today.
Far Eastern legal family
Today, many scholars argue that such a family does not exist, since the legal systems of many Far Eastern countries have adopted many institutions from European ones. Nevertheless, many aspects of the legal culture of China, Japan and other countries of this region make us think about the existence of a Far Eastern legal family.
The national legal systems of the countries represented are based on the large role of the family and its head, honoring traditions,
moral standards , etc. Moreover, it is customary to resolve any disputes within the family or community, and resort to the help of state bodies in the most extreme case. It should also be noted that the purpose of the appeal to the authorities is the legal protection of the family, and not of the individual. The rule of law in these countries is seen as a way to ensure harmony in society.
Conclusion
So, the article introduced the main legal families that are distinguished in the theory of state and law today. Naturally, some scholars also provide for the presence of other species, such as, for example, the social legal family of a socialist trend. Nevertheless, the question of their existence causes a lot of controversy in the scientific community.