Comparison

Read two legal systems against each other

Because every portal follows the same fifteen-section outline, the comparison is genuinely like-for-like rather than a collage of whatever each government happens to publish.

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Comparison of selected legal systems
Attribute	Equatorial GuineaIndexed	KuwaitReviewed	TongaReviewed
Legal family	Civil law (Spanish tradition)	Mixed (civil law and Islamic law)	Common law with customary law
System of government	Unitary presidential republic	Unitary constitutional monarchy	Constitutional monarchy
Constitution	Fundamental Law of Equatorial Guinea	Constitution of the State of Kuwait	Act of Constitution of Tonga
In force since	1991	1962	1875
Capital	Malabo	Kuwait City	Nuku'alofa
Official languages	Spanish, French, Portuguese	Arabic	Tongan, English
Currency	Central African CFA franc (XAF)	Kuwaiti dinar (KWD)	Tongan paʻanga (TOP)
Population	1,700,000	4,300,000	105,000
Division of powers	Presidential system with a Vice-President and Prime Minister, a bicameral Parliament of Chamber of Deputies and Senate, and a judiciary headed by the Supreme Court of Justice.	Unitary. Six governorates administered by appointed governors, with no legislative competence.	Unitary. The Legislative Assembly legislates for the whole kingdom, and the island divisions of Tongatapu, Vava'u, Ha'apai, 'Eua and the Niuas are administrative districts headed by governors. Below that, town and district officers are elected under the Fakafekau'aki and District and Town Officers Act.
How law is made	Bills pass the Chamber of Deputies and Senate and are promulgated by the President, who may return a text for reconsideration.	Under the constitution as designed, bills passed by the National Assembly required Emiri sanction, and the Emir could return a bill for reconsideration which the Assembly could override by a two-thirds majority. With the Assembly dissolved and the relevant articles suspended since May 2024, legislation is made by Emiri decree on the proposal of the Council of Ministers and published in the Official Gazette (Kuwait Al-Youm).	Bills pass three readings in the Legislative Assembly and require the King's assent, which is a real rather than purely formal step. Ordinary bills need a simple majority. Amendments to the Constitution require a majority in the Assembly at three separate readings and the consent of the King and Privy Council, and clause 79 forbids any amendment affecting the law of liberty, the succession to the throne or the titles and hereditary estates of the nobles.
Legal profession	Abogados admitted through the Ilustre Colegio de Abogados; practice requires competence in both Spanish codes and French-language OHADA texts.	Advocacy is reserved to Kuwaiti nationals enrolled with the Ministry of Justice and the Kuwait Bar Association, with foreign lawyers acting as consultants and unable to appear; pleadings are in Arabic. Judges are appointed by the Supreme Judicial Council, and a significant proportion of the bench has historically been seconded from other Arab states. Notarial authentication at the Ministry of Justice is required for powers of attorney, property transfers and company formation documents.	Law practitioners are admitted by the Chief Justice and licensed under the Law Practitioners Act, with the Tonga Law Society as the professional body. Most qualify overseas or at the University of the South Pacific. A practitioner working on land must know the Land Act's allotment system rather than general property law, because the constitutional bar on selling land means conveyancing in the ordinary sense does not exist.

A comparison table flattens nuance by design. Where a difference matters to a decision you are making, open both portals and read the section in full — the constitutional detail behind a one-line summary is often the part that governs the outcome.