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	South SudanIndexed	São Tomé and PríncipeIndexed
Legal family	Common law with customary law	Civil law (Portuguese tradition)
System of government	Transitional government of national unity	Unitary semi-presidential republic
Constitution	Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan	Constitution of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe
In force since	2011	1990
Capital	Juba	São Tomé
Official languages	English, Arabic, Dinka, Nuer	Portuguese
Currency	South Sudanese pound (SSP)	São Tomé and Príncipe Dobra (STN)
Population	11,100,000	230,000
Division of powers	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.	Semi-presidential: a directly elected President with veto and dissolution powers, a Prime Minister accountable to the National Assembly, and an independent judiciary.
How law is made	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.	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.
Legal profession	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.	Advogados admitted through the Ordem dos Advogados; the profession is very small and many practitioners train in Portugal.

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.