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	MoldovaReviewed	UruguayReviewed	BruneiReviewed
Legal family	Civil law	Civil law	Mixed common law and Islamic law
System of government	Unitary parliamentary republic	Unitary presidential republic	Absolute monarchy
Constitution	Constitution of the Republic of Moldova	Constitution of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay	Constitution of Brunei Darussalam
In force since	1994	1967	1959
Capital	Chișinău	Montevideo	Bandar Seri Begawan
Official languages	Romanian	Spanish	Malay, English
Currency	Moldovan leu (MDL)	Uruguayan peso (UYU)	Brunei dollar (BND)
Population	2,400,000	3,400,000	450,000
Division of powers	Parliamentary, though the President has been directly elected since 2016; the Constitutional Court arbitrates between the two.	Unitary. Nineteen departments have elected intendentes and juntas with administrative and local taxing competence, and municipalities were added in 2010, but all legislative power belongs to the General Assembly.	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 are adopted by Parliament, usually in two readings, and promulgated by the President, who may return a bill once for reconsideration. Publication in Monitorul Oficial is a condition of entry into force.	Bills pass both chambers; disagreement is resolved by the General Assembly sitting jointly. The executive may veto, overcome by three-fifths of the joint assembly. Distinctively, 25% of registered voters can force a referendum to repeal a statute within one year of promulgation, and 10% can initiate a constitutional plebiscite.	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	Lawyers are licensed by the Union of Advocates after examination and traineeship; notaries, bailiffs and authorised administrators are separate licensed professions.	A degree from the Universidad de la República or an accredited private faculty confers the title of abogado, with registration by the Supreme Court. Membership of the Colegio de Abogados del Uruguay is voluntary; the Supreme Court exercises discipline. Escribanos públicos are a separate profession with exclusive competence over conveyancing.	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.