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Assignment #2

Due: February 24, 2026

Based on the country description in

Wikipedias classification of legal systems

(

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_legal_systems

) and

Pisslers essay about

socialist law

(

https://max-eup2012.mpipriv.de/index.php/Socialist_Law

), please select

four countries. You should have a country from each of the following legal systems:

civil law tradition, common law tradition, socialist law tradition, and Islamic law

tradition (Hint: socialist law countries are most difficult to find!). Countries may

belong to more than one legal tradition. If that is the case, please be sure to find the

country that has the specific legal tradition that you need listed as their dominant

legal tradition.

Your assignment is to compare these countries in terms of their substantive

and procedural laws. In particular, you will need to list 5 similarities and 5 differences

in the countries substantive criminal laws (defining crimes and punishments) and

procedural criminal laws (describing legal rules regulating criminal procedure, from

the rules regulating police officers work to the rules regulating the trial). As you write

about their similarities and differences, you do not need to compare across all 4

countries. Your first similarity can include a comparison across only 2 countries (e.g.,

Country A and Country B), while your second comparison could be across different

two countries (e.g., Country C and Country D). Also, you can write your assignment

about

only

substantive

laws,

only

procedural

laws,

or

both

substantive

and

procedural criminal laws. It is up to you.

The next step in your assignment is to go online and find more information

about each of the four countries. When you are searching online, you can either

search for countries legal codes, which may not be an easy task, depending on the

country. Also, you could face a language barrier or may experience challenges

understanding the complexities of the legal text. Alternatively, you can opt to search

for specific terms. For example, if you are looking for procedural rules, you could

search for the jury in the country or for the pretrial detention. If you are looking for

substantive laws, you can look for the crimes that carry a death penalty, if the country

has the death penalty on the books (in that case, first search whether the country is an

abolitionist country, which in itself could be one difference from or similarity with

other country!).

At the beginning of your report, please write down the names of the four

countries and their dominant legal traditions. Then, describe 5 similarities and 5

differences in either substantive laws and/or procedural laws (Hint: its useful to

provide 6 or 7 items to be sure that you have 5 correct ones). Clearly state your

argument (e.g., similarities: both Germany [civil law tradition] and Egypt [Islamic

law] do not use the death penalty). Then, provide more details (e.g., Germany has

abolished the death penalty in West Germany in 1949 and in East Germany in 1987.

Although it is an Islamic country, Egypt has also abolished the death penalty in 2004,

but much later than Germany did, particularly Western Germany).