9.5 Legal systems
Through the lenses of Perception Spheres, we can examine the structure of different legal systems:
Open civil law and common law systems do not operate within the closed confines of a single “justice framework.” For them, justice exists per se, and it is up to humans to continuously seek its true meaning.
In common law, courts remain autonomous and must repeatedly seek justice, creating new precedents when necessary.
In civil law, new legislation is introduced or revised whenever lawmakers believe it will better guarantee justice.
In common law, morality is determined through specific cases that serve as the building blocks of the legal system. In civil law, the question of what is (im)moral is addressed in a more general sense and then incorporated into the legal system.
Religious or ideological legal systems are based on certain preexisting concepts of justice. Their justice systems both reflect and reinforce these doctrines. The doctrine effectively becomes “justice with an adjective” and is injected into society and individuals. The adjective then attaches to other pillars of society: for example, Socialist law leads to a Socialist republic, Socialist democracy, Socialist economy, and Socialist morality, and so on.
“Politician law” is a system in which politicians control the justice system not to implement an ideological or religious doctrine, but rather to (mis)use it for their own personal interests.