Lexipedia

Mixed legal systems

Mixed legal systems combine elements from different legal traditions, often civil law, common law, customary law or religious law, in one jurisdiction.

A mixed legal system draws its institutions, sources and methods from more than one legal tradition. Common examples combine civil-law codification with common-law precedent, or state legislation with customary or religious norms. The mix may result from colonisation, federalism, legal reception or constitutional compromise. For Swiss readers, the concept is mainly comparative: Switzerland is a civil-law jurisdiction with federal and multilingual features, but it is not usually classified as a mixed system in the classic sense.