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	MauritiusReviewed	BruneiReviewed	GrenadaReviewed
Legal family	Civil law	Mixed French civil law and English common law	Mixed common law and Islamic law	Common law
System of government	Unitary presidential republic	Parliamentary republic	Absolute monarchy	Constitutional monarchy
Constitution	Constitution of the Republic of Paraguay	Constitution of Mauritius	Constitution of Brunei Darussalam	The Grenada Constitution
In force since	1992	1968	1959	1973
Capital	Asunción	Port Louis	Bandar Seri Begawan	Saint George's
Official languages	Spanish, Guaraní	English, French, Mauritian Creole	Malay, English	English
Currency	Paraguayan guaraní (PYG)	Mauritian rupee (MUR)	Brunei dollar (BND)	East Caribbean dollar (XCD)
Population	6,900,000	1,260,000	450,000	126,000
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 Rodrigues holding a statutory autonomous status and its own Regional Assembly, and Agalega and St Brandon administered as outer islands.	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.	Unitary. The state comprises Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique; Carriacou and Petite Martinique have a Ministry and local administration but no separate legislature.
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 with committee scrutiny and receive presidential assent. Constitutional amendments require a three-quarters majority, and certain entrenched provisions — including the electoral and 'best loser' arrangements — require both a three-quarters majority and, for some, a referendum.	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.	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.
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 three-branch profession unusual in the region: barristers hold rights of audience, attorneys handle procedure and instruct barristers, and notaries deal with conveyancing and authenticated instruments under the civil-law tradition.	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 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.

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.