The History Of The Worlds Legal Systems Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Secondary rules supplement primary rules by providing mechanisms for allowing their identification, their violation, and their modification. According to Hart, secondary rules are rules of recognition, rules of adjudication and rules of the amendment (Hage Pfordten 2009 118). Moreover, other authors see modern legal systems as strictly characteristic of advanced industrial economies, where there are differentiation and stratification of institutions. These elements of stratification and differentiation are reflected in the legal systems as well. In these systems, lawmaking is more extensive and laws are more voluminous, with clear divisions (Sutherland, Cressey Luckenbill 27). Aside from the presence of secondary rules, modern legal systems can be differentiated from primitive legal systems by the existence of an apparent distinction between the civil and criminal jurisdictions, and the public from privacy laws. In early civilizations, there was no clear distinction between crimin al and civil cases. Thus, all cases were heard by the same courts, although there was usually a hierarchy of courts and appeals were allowed to the next higher court. The highest courts are usually at the state level staffed by the king s men and the lowest at the neighborhood or village level. We will write a custom essay sample on The History Of The Worlds Legal Systems or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page In the Aztec society, both criminal and civil cases were appealable to the ruler established court (Trigger 2003 pp.