Legal families, their concept and characteristics

Law is the main element on which absolutely all world powers are built. This thesis was put forward by philosophers of the era of modern times. They believed that the state is not a political, but a purely legal structure. Thus, the institutions of law are those regulators of social relations, without which it is simply impossible to build a state structure. The implementation of these institutions is done through the creation of a specific regime - the rule of law, which allows us to identify 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 common and dissimilar moments of the law of every state in the world. It led to the unification of the most similar legal systems into whole families.

The legal system is the main element of the legal family

It should be noted that legal families are based on the separation and comparison of legal systems of different states. In each such system, scientists identified the most similar and different points, which helped to carry out a general differentiation. The legal system is called a three-element structure, consisting of a system of law, legal culture and legalization. In turn, each of these elements is further subdivided into several components, for example:

1. The system of law consists of industry, sub-sector, institution and norm.

2. Legal culture - legal ideas, acts, institutions, etc. The main regulating factor of legal culture is the legal consciousness of the population, which manifests itself in the level of subordination to laws and the recognition of law and order.

3. Realization of the right - use, observance, execution.

On the basis of internal structure and other characteristics, scholars 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 20th century.

The concept of a legal family

A legal family is a collection of legal systems of different states that are combined with certain criteria. The theory was first put forward in 1667 by the German scientist Leibniz. He argued that the right of some countries allows them to be grouped together. Each of them will be based on similarities and differences in the development process of individual countries. It was on the basis of this theory that a modern concept of the legal family was developed. To date, the main criteria for the separation of families are:

- sources of law;

- terminological, methodological basis of the legal system;

- features of the system of law;

- historical characteristics of the state;

- the role of the courts;

- development and origin of the system of law.

Of course, any legal system is unique, but scientists based on the above criteria have learned to distinguish similar aspects. The development of the doctrine of legal families greatly influenced the development of scientific knowledge in 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 was put forward by a certain scientist. "Pioneer" in comparative law was David, who in the 60's formed the following classification:

1) Romano-Germanic, Anglo-Saxon and socialist legal family;

2) religious, Hindu and Far Eastern.

To date, this classification is significantly outdated. After all, David took as a basis only the historical factor. A scientist named Ketz had a different point of view on the problem of classifying families. He distinguished the following families:

1) Romance;

2) Germanic;

3) Scandinavian;

4) Anglo-Saxon;

5) Far Eastern, etc.

In addition, completely different classifications were put forward by scientists Behrouz and Osakwe. In modern theory, states and law are distinguished by the following main legal families:

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 peculiarities of legal technique, which is quite an important aspect in the modern world.

The Romano-German family

It should be remembered that there is always a legal basis for a family of any type, regardless of the territorial scope. It is formed from those sources that influenced the development of the legal family as a whole. The Romano-German legal family is a system throughout 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 for more accurate and more effective regulation of public relations. The overwhelming number of countries in this system have constitutions of written form. In the Roman-German legal family, there are a number of "offshoots" that have been formed taking into account the differences in the historical process in different parts of continental Europe. Thus, scientists identify subsystems, groups in the Romano-German legal family.

Subgroups of the novel-German family

Scientists to date, there are 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 such countries as Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland.

As we see, the characterization of legal families of the novel-German type was carried out on the basis of territorial disposition, features of historical and cultural development, as well as the distinctive aspects of elements of legal systems. Nevertheless, all the subgroups represented belong to the Romano-German legal family, and their allocation is purely nominal.

Common law is the Anglo-American legal family

The Anglo-American legal family, or common law, is dominant in Britain and its former colonies, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, etc. The ancestor of this system can rightfully be called England, because the customs of this particular country dominate in the Anglo- American legal family. The judicial precedent is the legal basis of an Anglo-American family. In contrast to the Romance seven countries, precedent in England and other related countries is given a prominent role. It should be noted that the precedent is regarded as a custom, a contract. He plays a paramount role in the process of developing and forming the right of countries of the Anglo-American family. Thus, the courts, in fact, formed the right. As we know, in the countries of the Romano-German family, courts play the role of right-realization. Nevertheless, in recent years the role of the normative act both in the UK and in other countries of the family has increased substantially. Some scientists today put it on par with the judicial precedent, they want this issue and remains 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 family of a religious type directly corresponds to religious norms. The family of religious law is currently developed in Islamic and Jewish states, although the trend of identifying religion and law has recently declined. In European countries, religious law did not take root even in the Middle Ages, because the church had power exclusively in the spiritual sphere.

Family of traditional law

The traditional legal family is the oldest and almost extinct. It is still found in some states of Central, South Africa, as well as Asia and Oceania. Some tribes of Australia live according to the norms of traditional law.

The essence of this legal family is that the most important social relations are regulated by the customs formed in the tribal community.
However, the 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 it was mentioned earlier, the traditional legal family is the oldest and the form of regulation of the behavior of society that has become extinct in our day.

Far Eastern legal family

Today, many scientists argue that such a family does not exist, since the legal systems of many Far Eastern countries have adopted many institutions from European. Nevertheless, many aspects of the legal culture of China, Japan and other countries in this region make us think about the existence of the Far Eastern legal family. The national legal systems of the countries represented are based on the great role of the family and its head, respect for traditions, moral norms , etc. At the same time, it is customary to decide any disputes within the family or community, and resort to the assistance of state bodies in the most extreme case. It should also be noted that the purpose of applying to the authorities is the legal protection of the family, and not of a single individual. The rule of law in these countries is seen as a way to ensure harmony in society.

Conclusion

So, in the article were presented the main legal families that are singled out in the theory of state and law for today. Of course, some scholars also provide for the existence of other types, such as the social legal family of the socialist direction. Nevertheless, the issue of their existence causes a lot of controversy in the scientific community.