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	NauruReviewed	EgyptReviewed	LithuaniaReviewed	NamibiaReviewed	HaitiReviewed
Legal family	Civil law	Common law with customary law	Civil law with Islamic law as principal source	Civil law	Mixed Roman-Dutch and English common law	Civil law
System of government	Unitary presidential republic	Parliamentary republic	Semi-presidential republic	Unitary semi-presidential republic	Semi-presidential republic	Unitary semi-presidential republic
Constitution	Constitution of the Republic of Paraguay	Constitution of Nauru	Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt	Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania	Constitution of the Republic of Namibia	Constitution de la République d'Haïti
In force since	1992	1968	2014	1992	1990	1987
Capital	Asunción	Yaren (seat of government)	Cairo	Vilnius	Windhoek	Port-au-Prince
Official languages	Spanish, Guaraní	Nauruan, English	Arabic	Lithuanian	English	French, Haitian Creole
Currency	Paraguayan guaraní (PYG)	Australian dollar (AUD)	Egyptian pound (EGP)	Euro (EUR)	Namibian dollar (NAD)	Haitian gourde (HTG)
Population	6,900,000	12,500	105,000,000	2,860,000	2,600,000	11,600,000
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 and highly centralised — Nauru has no second tier of general government. The Nauru Island Council was abolished in 1999, so the state deals directly with citizens, though the 14 districts remain the basis for parliamentary constituencies and the twelve tribes retain social significance in land and title questions.	Unitary, with 27 governorates headed by governors appointed by the President. There is no legislative devolution — governorates administer central policy, and local popular councils have been without elections for over a decade.	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.	Unitary with 14 administrative regions and elected regional councils, which also constitute the National Council, the upper chamber. Traditional authorities exercise recognised functions over communal land and customary law.	Unitary with constitutionally recognised decentralisation to 10 departments, arrondissements and communes, and to the communal section as the smallest territorial unit. In practice the elected local bodies are largely unfilled and replaced by appointed interim commissions.
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 receive three readings in the 19-member chamber and are assented to by the President. Ordinary legislation needs a simple majority, but the entrenched provisions of Part XI require a two-thirds majority and, for the most protected articles, approval at a referendum — the barrier that defeated the 2010 reform proposals.	Bills originate with the government, the President or members of the House of Representatives. They are examined in committee and passed by the House; the President may return a bill once, which the House can override by a two-thirds majority. Where the House is not in session the President may issue decree-laws that have the force of law but lapse unless ratified at the next session. Bills touching the judiciary must be put to the relevant judicial body for its opinion first.	Bills are adopted by the Seimas and signed by the President, who may veto and return a bill for reconsideration.	Bills pass the National Assembly through three readings, then go to the National Council for review. The Council may confirm, propose amendments, or object; the Assembly can override an objection by a two-thirds majority. The President then assents, and constitutional amendments require two-thirds of both chambers and may never diminish the rights chapter.	Under the 1987 Constitution bills pass both chambers and are promulgated by the President, who may return a text once for reconsideration. With Parliament not sitting, measures have been issued as executive decrees since 2020 — a practice widely criticised as lacking constitutional foundation, and a key reason to check the current status of any recent instrument before relying on it.
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 very small fused profession admitted by the Supreme Court under the Legal Practitioners Act 1973, supplemented by pleaders — non-lawyers licensed to appear in the District Court and before the Lands Committee, a practical necessity given the number of resident lawyers. Judicial officers are frequently appointed from Australia, New Zealand or elsewhere in the Pacific.	A single fused profession of advocates enrolled with the Egyptian Bar Association, with rights of audience tiered by seniority — appearance before the Court of Cassation requires years of practice and separate admission. Judges are career appointments recruited largely from the prosecution service and trained through the National Centre for Judicial Studies; the Council of State maintains a separate judicial career for administrative judges.	Advocates belong to the Lithuanian Bar Association; notaries handle property, company and succession formalities.	A fused profession under the Legal Practitioners Act: a single class of legal practitioner is admitted after a law degree and the Justice Training Centre's postgraduate course, and the Law Society of Namibia regulates practice.	Advocates are admitted to one of the departmental bars (Ordre des avocats), most prominently the Port-au-Prince bar, after a law degree and a period of pupillage. Notaries hold a separate public office with exclusive competence over authentic acts including land transfers, which matters greatly given widespread informality in land title.

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.