Mathias Siems
Varieties of Legal Systems: Towards a New Global Taxonomy
Siems, Mathias
Authors
Abstract
Legal scholars, economists and other social scientist often refer to the idea that countries can be classified into a number of ‘legal families’ or ‘legal origins’. Yet, this research is unsatisfactory as regards the actual classifications of the legal systems of the world. It is the aim of this paper to fill this gap and to develop a more robust taxonomy of legal systems. This taxonomy is based on a new dataset of 156 countries that is subsequently analysed with tools of network analysis. Applying cluster optimisation, this paper finds that the world's legal systems can be divided into four clusters. It displays those clusters in a map, akin to the Inglehart–Welzel cultural map. It is suggested that those findings have important implications, not only for our understanding of the legal world, but also for the feasibility of legal transplants and harmonisation.
Citation
Siems, M. (2016). Varieties of Legal Systems: Towards a New Global Taxonomy. Journal of Institutional Economics, 12(03), 579-602. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1744137415000545
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Dec 14, 2015 |
Online Publication Date | Feb 1, 2016 |
Publication Date | Sep 1, 2016 |
Deposit Date | Feb 2, 2017 |
Publicly Available Date | Feb 13, 2017 |
Journal | Journal of Institutional Economics |
Print ISSN | 1744-1374 |
Electronic ISSN | 1744-1382 |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 12 |
Issue | 03 |
Pages | 579-602 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1017/s1744137415000545 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1366191 |
Related Public URLs | https://ssrn.com/abstract=2703292 |
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Copyright Statement
This article has been published in a revised form in Journal of institutional economics https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137415000545. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © Millennium Economics Ltd 2016
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