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	ParaguayReviewed	LesothoReviewed	TongaReviewed	MexicoReviewed
Legal family	Civil law	Mixed Roman-Dutch and English common law	Common law with customary law	Civil law
System of government	Unitary presidential republic	Parliamentary constitutional monarchy	Constitutional monarchy	Federal presidential republic
Constitution	Constitution of the Republic of Paraguay	Constitution of Lesotho	Act of Constitution of Tonga	Political Constitution of the United Mexican States
In force since	1992	1993	1875	1917
Capital	Asunción	Maseru	Nuku'alofa	Mexico City
Official languages	Spanish, Guaraní	Sesotho, English	Tongan, English	Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
Currency	Paraguayan guaraní (PYG)	Lesotho loti (LSL)	Tongan paʻanga (TOP)	Mexican peso (MXN)
Population	6,900,000	2,300,000	105,000	130,000,000
Division of powers	Unitary with seventeen departments and the capital district, each with an elected governor and departmental board holding administrative and limited fiscal competence. Legislative power is national.	Unitary with ten districts, and a recognised hierarchy of chiefs exercising customary functions over land allocation and local dispute resolution. The Senate includes the twenty-two principal chiefs ex officio.	Unitary. The Legislative Assembly legislates for the whole kingdom, and the island divisions of Tongatapu, Vava'u, Ha'apai, 'Eua and the Niuas are administrative districts headed by governors. Below that, town and district officers are elected under the Fakafekau'aki and District and Town Officers Act.	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.
How law is made	Bills may start in either chamber and must pass both. The President may object in whole or part; Congress overcomes an objection by absolute majority in both chambers. Constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote of each chamber and ratification by referendum; wholesale reform requires a constituent assembly.	Bills pass three readings in the National Assembly, go to the Senate for review, and receive royal assent. The Senate can delay but not indefinitely block ordinary bills. Amendments to entrenched constitutional provisions require a two-thirds majority and, for the most protected clauses, a referendum.	Bills pass three readings in the Legislative Assembly and require the King's assent, which is a real rather than purely formal step. Ordinary bills need a simple majority. Amendments to the Constitution require a majority in the Assembly at three separate readings and the consent of the King and Privy Council, and clause 79 forbids any amendment affecting the law of liberty, the succession to the throne or the titles and hereditary estates of the nobles.	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).
Legal profession	A law degree and registration of the title with the Supreme Court, which maintains the roll and exercises discipline. Bar membership is voluntary. Because both Spanish and Guaraní are official, courts must provide interpretation, and practitioners outside Asunción are commonly bilingual.	A split profession in form — advocates and attorneys are separately admitted under the Legal Practitioners Act — though in practice many practitioners hold both admissions; the Law Society of Lesotho regulates the attorneys' branch.	Law practitioners are admitted by the Chief Justice and licensed under the Law Practitioners Act, with the Tonga Law Society as the professional body. Most qualify overseas or at the University of the South Pacific. A practitioner working on land must know the Land Act's allotment system rather than general property law, because the constitutional bar on selling land means conveyancing in the ordinary sense does not exist.	A law degree plus a cédula 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.

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.