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	ZimbabweReviewed	HaitiReviewed	PanamaReviewed
Legal family	Mixed Roman-Dutch and English common law	Civil law	Civil law
System of government	Presidential republic	Unitary semi-presidential republic	Unitary presidential republic
Constitution	Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20)	Constitution de la République d'Haïti	Political Constitution of the Republic of Panama
In force since	2013	1987	1972
Capital	Harare	Port-au-Prince	Panama City
Official languages	English, Shona, Ndebele	French, Haitian Creole	Spanish
Currency	Zimbabwe Gold (ZWG)	Haitian gourde (HTG)	Balboa (US dollar in circulation) (PAB)
Population	16,300,000	11,600,000	4,400,000
Division of powers	Constitutionally devolved to ten provinces with provincial and metropolitan councils, but implementation has lagged and central government retains effective control of provincial administration and revenue.	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.	Unitary, with ten provinces and five indigenous comarcas. The comarcas — Guna Yala, Emberá-Wounaan, Ngäbe-Buglé, Guna de Madugandí and Guna de Wargandí — hold recognised collective land title and internal authority.
How law is made	Bills are gazetted, then pass both the National Assembly and the Senate with committee scrutiny, and the Parliamentary Legal Committee reports on whether a bill or statutory instrument is consistent with the constitution — a step with no direct equivalent in the region. The President assents; constitutional amendments require two-thirds of the membership of each chamber, and some provisions additionally require a referendum.	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.	Bills receive three debates in the National Assembly. The President may object in whole or in part; the Assembly insists with a two-thirds vote, after which the President must promulgate unless the objection was constitutional, in which case the Supreme Court decides.
Legal profession	A fused profession of legal practitioners registered under the Legal Practitioners Act after a law degree and practical training, regulated by the Law Society of Zimbabwe; senior practitioners may be appointed Senior Counsel.	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.	Practice requires a Panamanian law degree and a licence from the Supreme Court; the Colegio Nacional de Abogados is influential but membership is voluntary. Only Panamanian lawyers may appear in court, which is why offshore work is routinely structured through local counsel.

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.