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	GrenadaReviewed	SpainReviewed	BruneiReviewed
Legal family	Common law	Civil law	Mixed common law and Islamic law
System of government	Constitutional monarchy	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy	Absolute monarchy
Constitution	The Grenada Constitution	Spanish Constitution	Constitution of Brunei Darussalam
In force since	1973	1978	1959
Capital	Saint George's	Madrid	Bandar Seri Begawan
Official languages	English	Spanish	Malay, English
Currency	East Caribbean dollar (XCD)	Euro (EUR)	Brunei dollar (BND)
Population	126,000	48,400,000	450,000
Division of powers	Unitary. The state comprises Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique; Carriacou and Petite Martinique have a Ministry and local administration but no separate legislature.	A constitutional monarchy with the King as head of state, an executive led by the President of the Government, a bicameral parliament and an independent judiciary, overlaid by extensive regional self-government.	Unitary, with four districts administered by district officers reporting to the Ministry of Home Affairs. No federal or devolved tier; village and mukim headmen have recognised consultative functions.
How law is made	Bills pass three readings in both Houses and receive the Governor-General's assent. Constitutional amendments to entrenched provisions need a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives and then approval by a referendum, a double lock that has defeated every reform package put to voters.	Bills pass both chambers of the Cortes Generales, with the Congress of Deputies able to override the Senate, and receive royal assent.	In form, bills are introduced in the Legislative Council and assented to by the Sultan. In practice the significant instruments are Orders made by the Sultan under the emergency proclamation, which take effect on publication in the Government Gazette without Council passage. The Syariah Penal Code Order 2013 was enacted this way.
Legal profession	A fused profession of legal practitioners admitted by the High Court under the Legal Profession Act, after a law degree and the Legal Education Certificate. The Grenada Bar Association represents practitioners.	Abogados belong to local bar associations (colegios de abogados); procuradores represent parties procedurally and notaries authenticate deeds and company acts.	Advocates and solicitors are admitted by the High Court under the Legal Profession Act, generally after qualifying in England, Malaysia, Singapore or Australia and completing local requirements. The profession is small — a few hundred practitioners — and foreign counsel may be admitted ad hoc for particular cases. Syariah practice is a separate track: Syariah lawyers are certified under the Syariah Courts Act and appear only in the Syariah hierarchy, so a matter that crosses both systems needs two sets of representation.

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.