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	PanamaReviewed	GrenadaReviewed	BruneiReviewed
Legal family	Civil law	Common law	Mixed common law and Islamic law
System of government	Unitary presidential republic	Constitutional monarchy	Absolute monarchy
Constitution	Political Constitution of the Republic of Panama	The Grenada Constitution	Constitution of Brunei Darussalam
In force since	1972	1973	1959
Capital	Panama City	Saint George's	Bandar Seri Begawan
Official languages	Spanish	English	Malay, English
Currency	Balboa (US dollar in circulation) (PAB)	East Caribbean dollar (XCD)	Brunei dollar (BND)
Population	4,400,000	126,000	450,000
Division of powers	Unitary, with ten provinces and five indigenous comarcas. The comarcas — Guna Yala, Emberá-Wounaan, Ngäbe-Buglé, Guna de Madugandí and Guna de Wargandí — hold recognised collective land title and internal authority.	Unitary. The state comprises Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique; Carriacou and Petite Martinique have a Ministry and local administration but no separate legislature.	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 receive three debates in the National Assembly. The President may object in whole or in part; the Assembly insists with a two-thirds vote, after which the President must promulgate unless the objection was constitutional, in which case the Supreme Court decides.	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.	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	Practice requires a Panamanian law degree and a licence from the Supreme Court; the Colegio Nacional de Abogados is influential but membership is voluntary. Only Panamanian lawyers may appear in court, which is why offshore work is routinely structured through local counsel.	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.	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.