Comparison

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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	São Tomé and PríncipeIndexed	South SudanIndexed
Legal family	Civil law (Portuguese tradition)	Common law with customary law
System of government	Unitary semi-presidential republic	Transitional government of national unity
Constitution	Constitution of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe	Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan
In force since	1990	2011
Capital	São Tomé	Juba
Official languages	Portuguese	English, Arabic, Dinka, Nuer
Currency	São Tomé and Príncipe Dobra (STN)	South Sudanese pound (SSP)
Population	230,000	11,100,000
Division of powers	Semi-presidential: a directly elected President with veto and dissolution powers, a Prime Minister accountable to the National Assembly, and an independent judiciary.	Decentralised in form, with states and administrative areas whose number has changed repeatedly — from ten at independence to twenty-eight, then thirty-two, and back to ten plus administrative areas under the 2018 agreement. Local government includes county and payam tiers and statutory customary authorities.
How law is made	Bills are debated and voted by the National Assembly and sent to the President for promulgation; the President may veto, returning the text with a message.	Bills are introduced by ministers or members, considered in committee and passed by the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, with the Council of States participating on matters affecting the states. The President assents. Because the legislature is constituted by power-sharing quota rather than election, and because several key bills including the permanent constitutional process have stalled, the process is transitional rather than settled.
Legal profession	Advogados admitted through the Ordem dos Advogados; the profession is very small and many practitioners train in Portugal.	Advocates are admitted through the Ministry of Justice and represented by the South Sudan Bar Association, and the profession is small relative to need, with many practitioners trained in Uganda, Kenya or Sudan. Judicial numbers are low and vacancies persistent, which is a large part of why customary courts carry most of the dispute-resolution load.

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.