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What legal systems are there in the world and are they directly related to political structure?

I guess something like:

  1. You're wrong until proven right
  2. You're right until proven wrong

Also what is the proper terminology for a law system?

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I can't do much better than the opening to Wikipedia's article on this:

The contemporary legal systems of the world are generally based on one of four basic systems: civil law, common law, statutory law, religious law or combinations of these. However, the legal system of each country is shaped by its unique history and so incorporates individual variations.

I believe that there are about 196 sovereign nations in the world so that gives 196 national systems. Many of these have sub-national jurisdictions (e.g. The USA with 50 states plus military law) so this total is at least several hundred and may run up to 1000. In addition there are systems of supra-national law such as maritime law, war crimes law and supra-national jurisdictions like the EU.

So, short answer: lots.

The correct terminology for a system of law is a jurisdiction. Note that many activities will be subject to multiple jurisdictions.

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I assume you mean innocent until proven guilty and guilty until proven innocent.

In which case there is: you are guilty (there is no burden of proof on either side), and guilty even though proven innocent (the no smoke without fire argument and although not a legal system it is a societal one).

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The contemporary legal systems of the world are generally based on one of four basic systems: civil law, common law, statutory law, religious law or combinations of these. However, the legal system of each country is shaped by its unique history and so incorporates individual variations.

Both Civil (also known as Roman) and Common law systems can be considered the most widespread in the world, Civil law because it is the most widespread by landmass, and Common law because it is employed by the greatest number of people.

Source Wikipedia's List of national legal systems

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  • Err no. English and Welsh Common Law is not codified (that's pretty much the point of it - the codified bits are Statutory Law). I assume there are plenty of other counter examples.
    – Martin Bonner supports Monica
    Aug 29, 2016 at 13:34
  • Yes. (Note that religious laws do actually change over time. Even if people claim otherwise: "Our forefathers were mistaken as to how to interpret this commandment".)
    – Martin Bonner supports Monica
    Aug 29, 2016 at 15:29
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    As edited this simply duplicates Dale's answer with less detail, and it came later.
    – David Siegel
    Nov 4, 2021 at 14:44

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