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.
Select up to six documented jurisdictions
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| Attribute | MexicoReviewed | UgandaReviewed | HaitiReviewed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal family | Civil law | Mixed (common law and customary law) | Civil law |
| System of government | Federal presidential republic | Unitary presidential republic | Unitary semi-presidential republic |
| Constitution | Political Constitution of the United Mexican States | Constitution of the Republic of Uganda | Constitution de la Rรฉpublique d'Haรฏti |
| In force since | 1917 | 1995 | 1987 |
| Capital | Mexico City | Kampala | Port-au-Prince |
| Official languages | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya | English, Swahili, Luganda | French, Haitian Creole |
| Currency | Mexican peso (MXN) | Ugandan Shilling (UGX) | Haitian gourde (HTG) |
| Population | 130,000,000 | 48,600,000 | 11,600,000 |
| Division of powers | Federal. Powers not expressly granted to the union are reserved to the 32 states (Article 124). States run their own civil, family and criminal-enforcement codes, but criminal procedure, labour and commercial law were federalised to produce single national codes. | Presidential system with a Prime Minister, a unicameral Parliament, and a judiciary in which the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal (sitting also as the Constitutional Court) and High Court form the superior courts. | Unitary with constitutionally recognised decentralisation to 10 departments, arrondissements and communes, and to the communal section as the smallest territorial unit. In practice the elected local bodies are largely unfilled and replaced by appointed interim commissions. |
| How law is made | Bills may be introduced by the President, either chamber, state legislatures or by citizens with 0.13% of the electoral roll. Both chambers must pass an identical text; the President may veto, and Congress overrides with two-thirds of each chamber. Constitutional amendments need two-thirds of Congress plus a majority of state legislatures (Article 135). | Bills receive three readings with committee scrutiny; certificates of financial implication are required for money bills. The President assents, returns the bill twice with recommendations, or it becomes law if passed a third time by two-thirds. | Under the 1987 Constitution bills pass both chambers and are promulgated by the President, who may return a text once for reconsideration. With Parliament not sitting, measures have been issued as executive decrees since 2020 โ a practice widely criticised as lacking constitutional foundation, and a key reason to check the current status of any recent instrument before relying on it. |
| Legal profession | A law degree plus a cรฉdula profesional from the Education Ministry licenses practice; there is no compulsory bar examination or single mandatory bar, which distinguishes Mexico from most of the region. Notaries public are a separate, strictly limited state-appointed profession with exclusive competence over real estate and company deeds. | Fused; an LLB, the Law Development Centre post-graduate diploma and enrolment admit an advocate. The Uganda Law Society is the professional body. | Advocates are admitted to one of the departmental bars (Ordre des avocats), most prominently the Port-au-Prince bar, after a law degree and a period of pupillage. Notaries hold a separate public office with exclusive competence over authentic acts including land transfers, which matters greatly given widespread informality in land title. |
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 โ the constitutional detail behind a one-line summary is often the part that governs the outcome.