CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, PATNA

JUDICIAL REDRESSAL SYSTEM IN VARIOUS

LEGAL SYSTEM

Submitted by:
Ram Kumar, B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) (1961)

Submitted to:
Dr. Peter Ladis F.
Faculty of Administrative Law

APRIL 2021

[This Final draft is submitted in the partial fulfillment of the course of

Administrative Law for the completion of the B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) course.]
Contents
DECLARATION BY THE CANDIDATE.............................................................................3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT..........................................................................................................4
1. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................5
1.1 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES...............................................................................................6
1.2 HYPOTHESIS...................................................................................................................7
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS...............................................................................................7
1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY......................................................................................7
A. SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION......................................................................7
B. METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION.....................................................................7
C. LIMITATIONS...........................................................................................................7
2. THE INDIAN LEGAL SYSTEM........................................................................................8
3. ROMAN-GERMANIC LAW SYSTEM...........................................................................11
4. COMMON LAW SYSTEM..............................................................................................13
5. SOCIALIST LAW SYSTEM............................................................................................15
6. OTHER LEGAL SYSTEM...............................................................................................16
7. CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................18
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................................20
BOOKS..................................................................................................................................20
DOCUMENT........................................................................................................................20
WEBSITES............................................................................................................................20

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 DECLARATION BY THE CANDIDATE

I, hereby, declare that the work reported in the B.A. ,LL.B. (Hons.) Project Report titled

“JUDICIAL REDRESSAL SYSTEM IN VARIOUS LEGAL SYSTEM” submitted at

CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, PATNA is an authentic record of my
work carried out under the supervisions of Dr. S. Ali Mohammad and Dr. Peter Ladis F. I
have not submitted this work elsewhere for any other degree or diploma. I am fully
responsible for the contents of my Project Report.

(Signature of the Candidate)

Ram Kumar (1961)

3rd Year, B.A., LL.B. (Hons.)

SEMESTER – Sixth

CNLU, Patna

Dated: 10.03.2021

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to show my gratitude towards my guides Dr. S. Ali Mohammad and Dr. Peter
Ladis F., Faculty of Administrative Law, under whose guidance, I structured my project.

I owe the present accomplishment of my project to our CNLU librarians, who helped me
immensely with materials throughout the project and without whom I couldn’t have
completed it in the present way.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to my friends and all those unseen hands that helped
me out at every stage of my project.

THANK YOU.

RAM KUMAR

SEMESTER – Sixth

CNLU, PATNA

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 1. INTRODUCTION

In different countries there are various types of judicial systems and each one of them has their
own ways of governance. For instance in United States the judicial systems is made up of two
different court systems. These are the federal court system and state court systems. Each of
those systems has the accountability of hearing particular types of cases. None of the systems is
totally independent from the other as the systems usually interact. More so, solving the legal
problems and vindicating of the legal rights are the main goals for all the court systems.1

The federal court system can refer to two types of courts. The first type of court is referred to us
the Article III court. These courts include: District Courts, Circuit Courts of Appeal, and
Supreme Court. They also involve two other special courts like the court of claims and
international courts. The later courts are unique because different from the other courts, they
are courts of general jurisdiction. The court general jurisdiction can listen to almost all the
cases.

There are also the second types of courts in various countries which may involve the magistrate
courts, bankruptcy courts, court of military appeals , tax courts and the court of veterans’’
appeals. In U.S. there are the special article III courts which involve the court of claims and
court of international trade. Other courts formed by the congress are the magistrate judges,
bankruptcy courts, the tax court, and court of veteran’s appeals.2

There are no state court systems which are similar. However, there are various similarities
which resemble the typical state court system. Most of the court systems are compost of two
types of trial courts, trial courts of limited jurisdiction which include the family and traffic
courts. There are also the courts of general jurisdiction which involve the main trial-level
courts, the intermediate appellate courts and also the highest state courts. Unlike the federal
judges, many of the state court judges are not permanently appointed are either appointed or
elected for a certain number of years.3

1
Looking At Legal Systems Around The World, CANTWELL & GoldMan PA, (20 March 2021 6:04 AM),
https://www.hmtlaw.com/international-business/legal-systems-of-the-world/.
2
Foreign, Comparative, and International Law: Legal Systems, Michigan Law Library, ( 26 March 2021 4:04
PM), https://libguides.law.umich.edu/c.php?g=815412&p=5891391.
3
Smriti Chand, 3 Kinds of Legal Systems that exist in Different Countries across the world, ( 27 March 2021
4:04 PM), https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/law/3-kinds-of-legal-systems-that-exist-in-different-countries-
across-the-world/5918.

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Amongst the Islamic tradition, the great deal of confusion, controversy, disunity and confusion
is brought by the careless utilization of argument that such things never existed in the days of
Prophet and rightly guided caliphs or which was not permitted by Islam law. When loud
speakers were initially utilized in India to enlarge the sound of adhan, some of them opposed
that on the basis of being untraditional. Members in Pakistan opposed the Islamic since most of
its systems got established later by major shaikhs like Abdul Qadir Jilani.

The legal terms of public and private law may appear complicated to normal people and that is
why there is confusion in the legal procedures. The criminal law includes the state imposed
sanctions for people or companies in order to get the social order or justice.4

The private law is referred to us the civil law and involves relationships between private
relationships, individuals and amidst citizens and companies. It caters for obligations law and
law of torts which are defined in two ways. Firstly, the obligation law regulates and organizes
the legal relations in between people under contract. Secondly, Law of Torts remedies and
addresses issues of civil wrongs which don’t rise from any contractual duty.5

The public law is distinguished from private as the law which involves state. Private law is the
private bill which is enacted into law and targets corporations and individuals unlike the public
law which has the wider scope and influence on general public.

1.1 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The researcher intends to find out the following during the course of research:

i) To study the types of legal system around the world.

ii) To compare the efficiency of different legal systems.

iii) To compare the complexity of filing cases in different legal system.

iv) To study the efforts made to improve the judicial system.

4
The Field Listing Legal System, The World FactBook, CIA , (27 March 2021 9: 47 PM),
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/legal-system/
5
Teacher, Law. (28 March 2021 6:05 PM), Different Types of Judicial Systems. Retrieved from
https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/constitutional-law/different-types-of-judicial-systems-constitutional-
law-essay.php?vref=1.

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1.2 HYPOTHESIS

The researcher assumed that the simplification of judicial system will improve the economy
of that country.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The researcher has formulated the following research questions, the answer for which has
been found during the course of research:

i) What are different legal system ?

ii) What are the key features of civil law and common law system

iii) What are common law, code law and theocratic law ?

iv) What are customary law and religious law ?

v) What are mixed legal system ?

1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The researcher will do doctrinal type of research in which he will go through the secondary
sources. The researcher through this methodology will be able to get a clear picture of the
problem in question. The doctrinal method helps in doing a comparative study of the topic.
This helps in getting the bird’s eye view of the subject.

A. SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION

SECONDARY SOURCES: Books, Articles, Websites.

B. METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

The researcher will make use of doctrinal methods that includes library work.

C. LIMITATIONS
The researcher has undergone time limitation.

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 2. THE INDIAN LEGAL SYSTEM

To delve among the laws of India is like bathing in the holy waters of Triveni. It leaves
one refreshed and delighted; refreshed from the pleasant contact with almost all the legal
systems of the contemporary world, and delighted at the hopeful realisation that here in the
Indian legal system lie the seeds of a unified, eclectic legal order which may soon grow into
maturity and spread its branches, like a banyan tree, all over south and southeast Asia.6

Three main streams join together to form the Indian legal system. That of the common
law is perhaps the most dominant among them. Then there is the stream of laws springing
from religion. The third is that of the civil ('romanist') law which energizes the system with
unruffled ethical verve and accords comeliness to its contours. Trickles of customary laws
cherished by tribal societies and other ethnic communities also flow into the main stream.
Like the Sarasvati near Prayag, the element of the civil law is not easily perceptible, though it
permeates the entire structure. So a word of explanation is perhaps warranted.

The very idea to a code appears to have been derived from the codes of continental
Europe. When in 1788 a codification of Hindu law on contracts and succession was proposed
by Sir William Jones to Lord Cornwallis, it was conceived to be on the model of the
“inestimable Pandects of Justinian”. On 18 May 1783 “A Regulation for forming into a
Regular Code, all Regulations that may be enacted for the Internal Government of the British
territories in Bengal” was passed by the Governor-General and Council, some eight years
earlier, in 1775 Warren Hastings had A Code of Gentoo Laws or Ordinations of the pundits
prepared and translated by Halhed a Judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta.7

The first Law Commission immediately after its appointment in 1833 with Macaulay as
its President took up the task of codification. Under Macaulay’s personal direction it prepared
its first draft of the Indian Penal Code and submitted it to the Governor-General in Council on
14 October 1837. When there were complaints that the progress of the Commission's work
was unsatisfactory, Macaulay compared its progress with that of the authors of the French
codes. He pointed out that though the French Criminal Code was begun in March 1801, the
Code of Criminal Procedure was not completed till 1810. It is also interesting to find half of
6
Dullbonline, The Indian Legal System:Joseph Minattur, DULLBONLINE , ( 24 March 2021 6:02 AM),
https://dullbonline.wordpress.com/2017/07/23/the-indian-legal-system/.
7
Raj K. (2007) Refashioning Civilities, Engineering Trust: William Jones, Indian Intermediaries, and the
Production of Reliable Legal Knowledge in Late-Eighteenth-Century Bengal. In: Relocating Modern Science.
Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230625310_4.

8|Page
the last century were on the same branches of law as were the French codes enacted earlier.
Neither in India nor in France was enacted a code on the law of civil wrongs. It is true that
there was no comprehensive enactment on torts in England, but then there were no
comprehensive enactments in England on any of the subjects covered by the Indian codes.

It is not only in cherishing the idea of codification that the British Indian authorities executive
as well as legislative bodies-appear to have been indebted to continental codes.8

It “derived assistance still more valuable from the code of Louisiana prepared by the
late Mr. Livingston”. The second Law Commission which sat in London from 1853 to 1856
expressed its view that: what India wants is a body of substantive civil law, in preparing which
the law of England should be used as a basis. It, however, emphasised that such a body of law
ought to be prepared with a constant regard to the conditions and institutions of India, and the
character, religious and usages of the population. It also stated that in the social condition
existing in India it was necessary to allow certain general classes of persons to have special
laws, recognised and enforced by our courts of justice, with respect to certain kinds of
transaction among themselves.

The Commission gave final shape to Macaulay's Penal Code; it also prepared drafts of
the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Criminal Procedure incorporating into them
materials left by the first Law Commission. The Legislative Council adopted the Code of
Civil Procedure in 1859, the Penal Code in 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure in 1861.

The third law Commission, appointed in 1861, was enjoined to prepare for India a body
of substantive law, in preparing which the law of England should be used as a basis. The
fourth law Commission expressed a similar view when it recommended in 1879 that English
law should be made the basis in a great measure of our future Codes, but its materials should
be recast rather than adopted without modification. It, however, added that in recasting those
materials due regard should be had to Native habits and modes of thought.9

The influence of Scots and their law on the framing and adoption of the early British
India codes and other enactments deserves to be mentioned. For a number of Scots in the 19th
century their prospects were not only along the highway to London, but from there across the
high seas to Indian ports. Macaulay himself was of Scottish descent. Even when Scots were

8
Joseph Minattur, Indian Legal System , Introduction,
http://14.139.60.114:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/738/4/Introduction.pdf.
9
M. C. SETALVAD, The Common Law in India, (London Stevens & Sons Limited I960).

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members of the English Bar, they were imbued with concepts derived from the civil law
system. In the same way a they would prefer to preserve Scots law unsullied by English
notions of Legal rule, they were inclined to keep Indian law unsullied by intrusions and
erosions to English rules of law and tended to give due regard to native habits and modes of
thought.10

We shall refer to few instances where the influence of the civil law is clearly discernible.
Section 11 of the Indian Evidence Act adopted in 1872 could not have been enacted in a fit of
absent-mindedness. The section which lays down guidelines to determine relevance in the
admissibility of evidence is a clear, and presumably a deliberate, departure from the English
rule and brings the Indian law in this respect very relevant and fair. Another provision which is
of interest in this regard is section 165 of the Act. Commenting on it, Stephen has said: Section
165 is intended to arm the judge with the most extensive power possible for the purpose of
getting at the truth. The effect of this section is that in order to get to the bottom of

the matter before it the court will be able to look at and enquire into every fact whatever.

It is not unfamiliar learning that the framers of the Indian Contract Act adopted several
provisions of the Draft New York Civil Code. The Contract Act which does not purport to be
a complete code only defines and amends certain parts of the law of contract, so that a rule of
the Hindu law of contract like Damdupat is not abrogated. The rule stipulates that interest
exceeding the amount of principal cannot be recovered at any time. It is still in force in some
parts of India. The reason for not interfering with a rule like this must have been the sense of
fairness cherished by the framers of the Act, though no such rule existed in English law.11

In the law of contract, consideration plays a significant role in India as in England. But
the words of section 25 of the Indian Contract Act12 which accords validity to a registered
agreement, even though without consideration, appear to reflect the concept of cause in
French law.

3. ROMAN-GERMANIC LAW SYSTEM

A first family may be called the Romano-Germanic family. This group includes those

10
Amy Street, Judicial Review and the Rule of Law Who is in Control?, (The Constitution Society: The Great
Britain, 2013).
11
NCERT, Historical Evolution of the Indian Legal System, (Legal Studies, NCERT),
http://cbseacademic.nic.in/web_material/doc/Legal_Studies/XI_U3_Legal_Studies.pdf
12
The Indian Contract Act 1872, Sec 25.

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countries in which legal science has developed on the basis of Roman jus civile. Here the
rules of law are conceived as rules of conduct intimately linked to ideas of justice and
morality. To ascertain and formulate these rules falls principally to legal scholars who,
absorbed by this task of enunciating the “doctrine” on an aspect of the law, are somewhat less
interested in its actual administration and practical application. These matters are the
responsibility of the administration and legal practitioners. Another feature of this family is
that the law has evolved, primarily for historical reasons, as an essentially private law, as a
means of regulating the private relationships between individual citizens; other branches of
law were developed later, but less perfectly, according to the principles of the “civil law”
which today still remains the main branch of legal science, Since the nineteenth century, a
distinctive feature of the family has been the fact that its various member countries have
attached special importance to enacted legislation in the form of “codes” .13

The Romano-Germanic family of laws originated in Europe. It was found by the

scholarly efforts of the European universities which, from the twelfth century and on the basis
of the compilations of the Emperor Justinian (A.D. 483-565), evolved and developed a
juridical science14 common to all and adapted to the conditions of the modern world. The term
Romano-Germanic is selected to acknowledge the joint effort of the universities of both Latin
and Germanic countries.

Through colonization by European nations, the Romano-Germanic family has conquered

vast territories where the legal systems either belong or are related to this family.15 The
phenomenon of voluntary “reception” has produced the same result in other countries which
were not colonized, but where the need for modernization, or the desire to westernize, has led
to the penetration of European ideas.

Outside Europe, its place of origin, these laws although retaining membership in the
Romano-Germanic family nonetheless have their own characteristics which, from a
sociological point of view, make it necessary to place them in distinct groups. In many of
13
Rene David & John E.C. Brierley, MAJOR LEGAL SYSTEMS IN THE WORLD TODAY, LAWFACULTY
DELHI, http://lawfaculty.du.ac.in/files/course_material/Old_Course_Material/I%20Term%20Jurisprudence-I
%20(Legal%20Method)%20July%202016.pdf.
14
NIOS, Introduction to Law, Classification of Legal System, NIOS ,
https://nios.ac.in/media/documents/SrSec338New/338_Introduction_To_Law_Eng/338_Introduction_To_Law_
Eng_L2.pdf.
15
Kristen Amond, What is the Civil Law?, LSU, (30 March 2021 10:56 PM), https://www.law.lsu.edu/clo/civil-
law-online/what-is-the-civil-law/.

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these countries it has been possible to “receive” European laws, even though they possessed
their own civilization, had their own ways of thinking and acting and their own indigenous
institutions, all of which ante-date such reception. Sometimes reception has left some of these
original institutions in place; this is particularly clear in the case of Muslim countries where
the reception of European law and the adhesion to the Romano-Germanic family have been
only partial, leaving some legal relations subject to the principles of the traditional, local law.
The old ways of thinking and acting peculiar to these countries may also mean that the
application of the new has been quite different from what it is in Europe. This question is
particularly important in the case of the countries of the Far East, where an ancient and rich
civilization existed long before the reception of western law.16

Finally, with respect to the countries of Africa and America, it will also be necessary to
ask whether their geographical conditions and populations’ distribution, creating conditions
entirely different from those in Europe, have not led to the development of laws substantially
different from their European models.

4. COMMON LAW SYSTEM

A second family is that of the Common law, including the law of England and those laws

16
René David and John E. C. Brierley, Major Legal Systems in the World Today: An Introduction to the
Comparative study of law, (The Free Press, 2nd Edition , 1978)

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modelled on English law. The Common Law, altogether different in its characteristics from
the Romano-Germanic family, was formed primarily by judges who had to resolve specific
disputes. Today it still bears striking traces of its origins. The Common law legal rule is one
which seeks to provide the solution to a trial rather than to formulate a general rule of conduct
for the future. It is then much less abstract than the characteristic legal rule of the Romano-
Germanic family.17 Matters relating to the administration of justice, procedure, evidence and
execution of judgments have, for Common law lawyers, an importance equal, or even
superior, to substantive legal rules because, historically, their immediate pre-occupation has
been to re-establish peace rather than articulate a moral basis for the social order. Finally, the
origins of the Common law are linked to royal power. It was developed as a system in those
cases where the peace of the English kingdom was threatened, or when some other important
consideration required, or justified, the intervention of royal power. It seems, essentially, to
be a public law, for contestations between private individuals did not fall within the purview
of the Common law courts save to the extent that they involved the interest of the crown or
kingdom. In the formation and development of the Common law- a public law issuing from
procedure-the learning of the Romanists founded on the jus civile played only a very minor
role. The divisions of the Common law, its concepts and vocabulary, and the methods of the
Common law lawyer, are entirely different from those of the Romano-Germanic family.
And as with the Romano-Germanic family, so too the Common law has experienced a
considerable expansion throughout the world-and for the same reasons: colonization or
reception. The observations made with respect to the Romano-Germanic family apply with
equal value. But here again a distinction between the Common law in Europe (England and
Ireland) and that outside Europe must be made.18 In certain extra-European countries, the
Common law may have been only partially received as in the case, for example, of certain of
Muslim countries or India and where it was received, attention must be given to its
transformation or adoption by reason of its co-existence with the tradition of previous
civilizations.19 A different environment has, in any event, created difference between the
Common law of the countries where it originated and that of those into which it was
imported. This observation is particularly true with respect of the Common law family
because it groups some countries such as the United States and Canada where a civilization
different in many respects from that of England has developed. The laws of these countries

17
Id at 11.
18
Id at 11.
19
Id at 11.

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 enjoy a largely autonomous place within the family.20

Relations with Common Law system

Over the centuries there have been numerous contacts between countries of the Romano-
Germanic family and those of the Common law, and the two families have tended,
particularly in recent years, to draw closer together. In both, the law has under gone the
influence of Christian morality and, since the Renaissance, philosophical teachings have
given prominence to individualism, liberalism and personal rights.21 Henceforth, at least for
certain purposes, this reconciliation enable us to speak of one great family of western law.
The Common law retains, to be sure, its own particular structure, very different from that of
the Romano-Germanic system, but the methods employed in each are not wholly dissimilar.
Above all, the formulation of the legal rule tends more and more to be conceived in Common
law countries as it is in the countries of the Romano-Germanic family. As to the substance of
the law, a shared vision of justice has often produced very similar answers to common
problems in both sets of countries.

The inclination to speak of a family of western law is all the stronger when one
considers that the laws of some states can not be annexed to either family, because they
embody both Romano-Germanic and Common law elements.22 The laws of Scotland, Israel,
the Union of South Africa, the Province of Quebee and the sophies in which the place and
function of law are very different from what they are in the West. A true picture of law in
contemporary world society would be incomplete without taking these considerations into
account.

5. SOCIALIST LAW SYSTEM

The Socialist legal system makes up a third family, distinct from the first two. To date
the members of the socialist camp are those countries which formerly belonged to the

20
Chapter 4. Society and Modern Life, OPENTEXTBC, (30 March 2021 15:14 PM),
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology2ndedition/chapter/chapter-4-society-and-modern-life/
21
James Fieser, RENAISSANCE AND EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY From The History of Philosophy: A
Short Survey, UTM , (30 March 2021 15:14 PM), https://www.utm.edu/staff/jfieser/class/110/6-renaissance.htm
22
Craig M. Lawson, The Family Affinities of Common-Law and Civil-Law Legal Systems, 6 HastingsInt'l &
Comp. L. Rev. 85 (1982).
https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_international_comparative_law_review/vol6/iss1/3

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Romano-Germanic family, and they have preserved some of the characteristics of Romano-
Germanic law. Thus, the legal rule is still conceived in the form of a general rule of conduct;
and the divisions of law and legal terminology have also remained, to a very large extent, the
product of the legal science constructed on the basis of the Roman law by European
universities.23

But apart from points of similarity, there do exist such differences that it seems proper to
consider the socialist laws as detached from the Romano-Germanic family - the socialist jurist
most decidedly do and as constituting a distinct legal family, at least at the present time. The
originality of Socialist law is particularly evident because of its revolutionary nature; in
opposition to the somewhat static character of Romano-Germanic laws, the proclaimed
ambition of socialist jurists is to overturn society and create the conditions of a new social order
in which the very concepts of state and law will disappear. The sole source of Socialist
rules of law resides therefore within the revolutionary work of the legislature, which
expresses popular will, narrowly guided by the Communist Party. However, legal science as
such is not principally counted upon to create the new order: law according to Marxism-
Leninism- a scientific truth-is strictly subordinate to the task of creating a new economic
structure.24 In execution of this teaching, all means of production have been collectivised. As a
result the field of possible private law relationships between citizens is extraordinarily limited
compared to the pre-Marxist period; private law has lost its pre-eminence – all law has now
become public law.25 This new concept removes from the very realm of law a whole series of
rules which jurists of bourgeois countries would consider legal rules.

6. OTHER LEGAL SYSTEM

The three families just described, each of which as numerous variants, are undoubtedly
the three principal families of law existing in the contemporary world. Strictly speaking there

23
Plucknett, T. (1939). The Relations between Roman Law and English Common Law down to the Sixteenth
Century: A General Survey. The University of Toronto Law Journal, 3(1), 24-50. doi:10.2307/824596
24
Vinícius Casalino, Karl Marx’s dialetics and the Marxist criticism of law, SCIELO, ( 31 March 2021 6:03
AM), https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S2179-89662018000402267&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en
25
Id.

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is no law in the world today which has not drawn certain of its elements from one or other of
these families. Some even hold the view that all other systems, no more than survivors from
the past, will ultimately disappear with the passing of time and the progress of civilization.
This attitude however proceeds from a rather native sense of superiority and is really no
more than an hypothesis, it does not acknowledge an observable reality in the modern world.

Muslim, Hindu, and Jewish Laws

The attitude of the Muslim, Hindu and Jewish communities about the law is easily
understood by a western jurist, even though the definition of law itself in western
jurisprudence has always given rise to difficulties and no single definition has so far elicited
any general acceptance. One of the fundamental reasons for this lack of agreement is the
debate between the proponents and adversaries of the notion of “natural law”. But it is
because the idea of “natural law” exists that we are able to understand the starting premise of
these other systems.

In Muslim countries, in the same way, more attention is given to the model law linked to the
Islamic religion than to local custom (treated as a phenomenon of fact) or the laws and
decrees of the sovereign (treated as merely administrative measures) and neither of these is
thought to possess the full dignity of law. The same can be said of Jewish law and, in a very
different context, Hindu law.26

Law, then, whether linked to a religion or corresponding to a particularly way of thinking

about the social order, is not in either case always necessarily observed by private persons or
applied by courts. This difference in approach is not a source of any real inconvenience
because in western societies there is a large degree of equivalence between justice, positive
law and social manners. The same cannot however be said of non-western societies where
“rules of law” (in the western sense) remain unorganized, fragmentary and unstable, and
where there is generally feeling that true law is to be found elsewhere than in legislation,
custom or judicial decisions. Without taking sides in the debate between positivists and
advocates of natural law, Muslim and Hindu law, therefore, must be included within the
major contemporary legal systems. Jewish law, despite its historical and philosophical

26
Dullbonline, The Indian Legal System:Joseph Minattur, DULLBONLINE , ( 31 March 2021 6:02 AM),
https://dullbonline.wordpress.com/2017/07/23/the-indian-legal-system/.

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interest, must be omitted because its sphere of influence is incomparably less than that the
other two.

Far East

The situation in the Far East, especially China is completely different. Here there is no
question of studying an ideal law distant from rules laid down by legislators or simply
followed in practice: here the very value of law itself has traditionally been put into question.27

In the West, and in Islamic and Hindu communities, law is held to be a necessary part of,
indeed a basis for, society. And lastly, but from another point of view, the Romano-Germanic
and Common law families28 are included in the same deliberately ignominious term of
“capitalist” or “bourgeois laws” by jurists of the socialist camp, made up of the Soviet Union
and those countries that have used its law as a model or which, like the U.S.S.R. profess an
adherence to Marxist-Leninist teachings29.

Black Africa and Malagasy Republic

The preceding observations regarding the Far East apply as well to the black African
countries and the Malagasy Republic (Madagascar).30 The Western laws adopted in Africa are
often hardly more than a veneer, the vast majority of the population still lives according to
traditional ways which do not comprise what we in the West call law and without heed to
what is very often nothing more than an artificially.

7. CONCLUSION

The judicial system plays an important role in the development of market economies. It does
so in many ways: by resolving disputes between private parties, by resolving disputes between
private and public parties, by providing a backdrop for the way that individuals and
27
Plucknett, T. (1939). The Relations between Roman Law and English Common Law down to the Sixteenth Century:
A General Survey. The University of Toronto Law Journal, 3(1), 24-50. doi:10.2307/824596
28
Id.
29
Id.
30
Id.

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organizations behave outside the formal system, and by affecting the evolution of society and
its norms while being affected by them. These changes bring law and order and promote the
development of markets, economic growth, and poverty reduction. Judicial systems need to
balance the need to provide swift and affordable—that is, accessible—resolution with fair
resolution; these are the elements of judicial efficiency.

Judicial reform, like other institutional reforms, is often politically difficult. When considering
institutional reform in this area, recognizing the complementarity among different institutional
elements is key. Many elements affect judicial performance—for example, the institutional
process for setting wages and promotions, procedural law, substantive law, the capacity of
lawyers and judges, and the perceived relevance of the courts by people. Not all the elements
that affect judicial performance are equally difficult politically. This is important: institutions
work as systems. An im- provement in one part can affect the efficiency of the whole system;
that is, policymakers may complement various small reforms to improve efficiency while
building momentum for larger reforms. The success of judicial reforms depends on increasing
the accountability of judges; that is, providing them with incentives to perform effectively,
simplifying procedures, and targeting resource increases.

One of the most important elements affecting judicial accountability is transparency, or the
provision of information that makes it easy to monitor judicial performance and affect judges’
reputations—for example, judicial databases that make cases easy to track and hard to
manipulate or misplace. Simplifying legal procedures tends to increase judicial efficiency. For
example, for judicial systems that rely excessively on written procedures, a shift toward oral
hearings tends to make trials simpler, faster, and cheaper, with little loss of accuracy. Reforms
of this sort have improved efficiency and access in countries with diverse legal traditions.
Small-claims courts and justices of the peace are widely popular because of their lay lan
guage and pared-down procedures. Simplification is particularly important in countries where
complementary institutions are weak, and other types of reforms may be more difficult in the
short run. Simplified procedures may also benefit the poorer members of society and increase
their access to the judicial system. Alternative dispute resolution systems—based on social
norms or on simplified legal procedures—can also enhance access of the disadvantaged to
legal services. Partially delegating the “nuts and bolts” of procedural reform to the judicial
branch can speed the process of innovation and experimentation. Judicial reform that aims to
improve the quality and integrity of judicial decisions is best focused on creating politically

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independent, difficult-to-intimidate judges. Creating a system of checks and balances also
improves fairness and integrity. For this, judicial independence needs to be coupled with a
system of social accountability. The channels for such accountability can be the free media
and civil society organizations, or accountability can be built into the judicial system itself.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS

 Joseph Minattur, Indian Legal System , ( BIT, Introduction)

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  M. C. SETALVAD, The Common Law in India, (London Stevens & Sons Limited,
I960).
 Amy Street, Judicial Review and the Rule of Law Who is in Control?, (The Constitution
Society: The Great Britain, 2013).
 NCERT, Historical Evolution of the Indian Legal System, (Legal Studies, NCERT).
 Rene David & John E.C. Brierley, Major Legal Systems In The World Today,
(LAWFACULTY DELHI)
 Introduction to Law, Classification of Legal System, (NIOS )

JOURNALS

 Raj K., Refashioning Civilities, Engineering Trust: William Jones, Indian

Intermediaries, and the Production of Reliable Legal Knowledge in Late-Eighteenth-
Century Bengal. In: Relocating Modern Science, (Palgrave Macmillan, London,
2007).
 René David and John E. C. Brierley, Major Legal Systems in the World Today: An
Introduction to the Comparative study of law, (The Free Press, 2nd Edition , 1978).
 Plucknett, T., The Relations between Roman Law and English Common Law down to the
Sixteenth Century: A General Survey. The University of Toronto Law Journal, 3(1), 24-
50, (1939).

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 https://www.law.lsu.edu

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