There large number of countries in the world make it difficult to study all the legal systems. However, there is need to look at a few legal models especially in the criminal justice systems. This is necessary due to the increasing number of transnational crimes that may involve many countries. This is often aided by technological advancement that bring about cyber threats among the many other types of crimes. I will therefore be comparing the American model with other models globally. Two approaches are used in the study of the existing legal systems, and they provide a background of how they came into existence. They include the natural law approach and the positive law approach. The natural law approach is the law that originated from the jurists in Rome and it has spread to form a basis for many legal systems in the world. All principles naturally observed by all legal systems are deemed to be natural law. An example is killing is generally accepted to be bad. That is a form of natural law. It is eternal law that regulates how human beings relate with each other and the universe in general. The positive approach is the law that has been translated into legislation by various governments. It dictates that law should reflect the will of the majority of the people. Unlike in the natural law approach, the positive approach does not have the aspects of morality since law is seen as that what the majority demand. An example is the issue whether abortion is moral or immoral; under the positive approach, it becomes where the law places it to be, legal or illegal. There exist largely two models of the legal system; the common law model and the civil law model. The common law model usually relies on the legal doctrine of precedent, in that judgments have to follow previous decisions of other judges from the higher courts, moving empirically from one case to another. The civil law model approach tends to make judgments from abstract principles based on deductive reasoning. This legal system is practiced in the United States at the state level, most of the United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa among many other countries. Most other countries have adopted it into their mixed legal system. In majority of these countries, law makers pass legislation in terms of laws and statutes but it is entirely the role of judges to interpret such laws. This therefore creates a puzzling relationship between statutes and judges where sometimes judges render statutes unconstitutional and sometimes statutes nullify judicial decisions. It is law that originated in England and was passed to all the English colonies. The major difference between the common law and the civil law legal system model is the doctrine of “stare decisis” in common law systems that depend on the previously decided cases from higher courts. The civil law legal models are characterized by their relationships with the formative years with the German Law, Canon law, Roman law and the general customs. The model is divided into four groups; the French civil law practiced by countries such as Italy, France, Spain and their former colonies. The Chinese law which is a mixture of socialist law and civil law, the Scandinavian civil law practiced in Denmark, Norway and Sweden and the German Civil law practiced in Germany, Portugal, Switzerland and their colonies among the many countries. Roman law is used to describe the whole Roman tradition and became the first to consider law as a science whereby they could see the world. Roman law has been classified according to the various periods from the era of the first jurists, to orators like Cicero up to the modern Roman Law. One major similarity in the two models is that law is based on the legislated pieces. Major differences also arise in that common law is seen to be adversarial in nature while civil law is seen to be inquisitorial. The major of a court system is to ensure peace exists by resolving disputes whenever they arise between two or more parties. In civil cases such as a dispute in a contract, the offended party will bring a suit in court against the offender for the court to determine and resolve the case. This is however not the case in criminal cases. In criminal cases the State accuses an offender of the crime and demands an appropriate punishment as stipulated under the penal laws of that particular legal jurisdiction. Such functions are done by the domestic states as well as international courts such as the International Criminal Court. Rule of law is a concept attributed to a British constitutional law expert A.V Dicey who postulated that a quality government is one where every citizen is the same under the law. Under this concept, nobody, not even the queen was above the law. The world Justice Project later in 2014 expounded on it by anchoring it on four principles:
The government, its officials and the public are accountable under the law.
The laws are clear, publicized, stable and just.
The process by which the laws are enforces are fair, accessible and efficient.
Justice is delivered timely by competent, ethical and independent and neutral representatives who have adequate resources and are sufficient.
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Other international bodies such as the United Nations also work to ensure that countries obey the rule of law. Law enforcement is achieved both through policing and the police services. Policing is a set of processes used in an attempt to maintain security through surveillance while police is the institution that enforces the policing. Two major law enforcement systems can be noticed globally. One is where the national police dominate the law enforcement and the other is where the local law enforcement agencies with limited police powers dominate the law enforcement. Law is enforcement is done to preserve the public order and those who break the law are subjected to punishment. Punishment is a state-imposed sanction that makes offenders make monetary compensations or get detained. Those measures are aimed at retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation or incapacitation.
