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Varieties of Legal Systems: Towards a New Global Taxonomy

Siems, Mathias

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Authors

Mathias Siems



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
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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