Burundi · Overview
The legal system of Burundi
A Belgian-tradition civil-law system whose constitutional design is built around the ethnic quotas agreed in the 2000 Arusha Accords: fixed Hutu and Tutsi proportions in the legislature, government and army are written into the constitution. Burundi is the only state to have withdrawn from the Rome Statute of the ICC, effective 2017.
Legal tradition
Burundi belongs to the civil law (belgian tradition) tradition. A Belgian-tradition civil-law system whose constitutional design is built around the ethnic quotas agreed in the 2000 Arusha Accords: fixed Hutu and Tutsi proportions in the legislature, government and army are written into the constitution. Burundi is the only state to have withdrawn from the Rome Statute of the ICC, effective 2017.
How power is divided
Presidential system with a Prime Minister, a bicameral Parliament of National Assembly and Senate with ethnic and gender quotas, and a judiciary headed by the Supreme Court with a separate Constitutional Court.
Where law comes from
- Constitution
- 2018 text; entrenches Arusha ethnic balance provisions.
- International treaties
- Ratified instruments form part of the domestic order.
- Laws and decree-laws
- Parliamentary statutes and government instruments.
- Codes
- Civil, penal (2017), persons and family, labour and land codes.
- Customary law
- Applied by bashingantahe councils and local courts in practice.
The legal profession
Avocats admitted through the Ordre des avocats du Burundi after a law degree and traineeship; the profession is concentrated in Bujumbura.
Found something out of date on Burundi · Overview?
Corrections are reviewed against the primary source before anything changes.