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	VanuatuReviewed
Legal family	Mixed common law with customary law	Mixed common, civil and customary law
System of government	Presidential republic in free association with the United States	Unitary parliamentary republic
Constitution	Constitution of the Republic of Palau	Constitution of the Republic of Vanuatu
In force since	1981	1980
Capital	Ngerulmud	Port Vila
Official languages	Palauan, English	Bislama, English, French
Currency	United States dollar (USD)	Vanuatu vatu (VUV)
Population	18,000	330,000
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.	Unitary with decentralised administration. Six provinces — Malampa, Penama, Sanma, Shefa, Tafea and Torba — have councils under the Decentralisation Act with delegated functions. Custom land management is decentralised much further, to area-level Custom Land Tribunals and nakamal-based decision-making under the Custom Land Management Act 2013.
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 read three times in the single chamber and assented to by the President, who may refer a bill to the Supreme Court if he considers it inconsistent with the Constitution. Ordinary bills need a simple majority of members present, with a quorum of two-thirds. Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds majority of all members; if the amendment touches the status of Bislama, English or French, land, or the republican form of the state, it must also be approved at a national referendum.
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.	A fused profession regulated by the Legal Practitioners Act: practitioners are admitted by the Chief Justice and licensed by the Law Council. The University of the South Pacific's law school is in Port Vila, so many Pacific lawyers train in Vanuatu. Practitioners may need to work in Bislama, English or French depending on the client and the court file, and the Public Solicitor is a constitutional office rather than a discretionary aid scheme.

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.