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	PalauReviewed	LithuaniaReviewed	KenyaReviewed
Legal family	Mixed common law with customary law	Civil law	Mixed (common law, customary law, Islamic law)
System of government	Presidential republic in free association with the United States	Unitary semi-presidential republic	Unitary presidential republic with devolved counties
Constitution	Constitution of the Republic of Palau	Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania	Constitution of Kenya
In force since	1981	1992	2010
Capital	Ngerulmud	Vilnius	Nairobi
Official languages	Palauan, English	Lithuanian	English, Swahili
Currency	United States dollar (USD)	Euro (EUR)	Kenyan Shilling (KES)
Population	18,000	2,860,000	55,100,000
Division of powers	A republic of sixteen states, each with its own constitution, governor and legislature, over a small population — Palau has more layers of government per head than almost anywhere. The national Council of Chiefs, made up of the paramount chief of each state, advises the President on custom and traditional law, and the two highest-ranking chiefly titles of Koror and Melekeok carry particular weight.	Semi-presidential government with a directly elected President focused on foreign and security policy, a Government answerable to the Seimas, and a separate Constitutional Court.	Presidential system with no Prime Minister, a bicameral Parliament of National Assembly and Senate, 47 county governments with their own assemblies and executives, and an independent judiciary supervised by the Judicial Service Commission.
How law is made	Bills must pass both the Senate and the House of Delegates and are then presented to the President, who may veto; Congress may override with a two-thirds vote of each chamber. Because the House gives every state one delegate regardless of population, the smallest states hold disproportionate weight in the second chamber. Constitutional amendments require a three-quarters vote of each house or a convention, followed by approval at referendum in a majority of the states.	Bills are adopted by the Seimas and signed by the President, who may veto and return a bill for reconsideration.	Bills are read three times with committee scrutiny and public participation, which the courts treat as a justiciable requirement. Bills concerning counties must pass both chambers. The President assents or refers the bill back with reservations, which Parliament may override by two-thirds.
Legal profession	Admission is to the Supreme Court under rules that recognise United States bar qualifications, and a substantial part of the bar and bench trained in the US. Palau also licenses trial assistants to appear in the Court of Common Pleas and the Land Court, which is how much routine representation is provided. Land Court practice is a specialism in itself, given the layers of Spanish, German, Japanese and Trust Territory administration that Palauan title claims have to be traced through.	Advocates belong to the Lithuanian Bar Association; notaries handle property, company and succession formalities.	Fused: an LLB, the Kenya School of Law advocates training programme, and admission by the Chief Justice produce an advocate of the High Court. The Law Society of Kenya is the professional body; Senior Counsel is the senior rank.

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.