legal system

Code of Ur-Nammu, setting forth the legal system that governed Ur in the third millennium BC. A legal system is a set of legal norms, institutions, and processes by which those norms are applied, often within a particular jurisdiction or community. It may also be referred to as a legal order. The comparative study of legal systems is the subject matter of comparative law, while the definition of legal systems in the abstract has been largely the domain of legal philosophy. Although scholarship has largely focused on national legal systems, many other distinct legal systems exist; for example, in Canada, in addition to the Canadian legal system there are numerous Indigenous legal systems.

The term "legal system" is often used to refer specifically to the laws of a particular nation state. Some countries have a single legal system, while others may have multiple overlapping legal systems arising from distinct sources of sovereign authority, as is often the case in federal states. In addition, different groups within a country are sometimes subject to different legal systems; this is known as legal pluralism. International law is also sometimes classified as a legal system, but this classification is disputed.