The distribution of legal traditions around the world : A contribution to the legal-origins theory
Abstract
The distribution of the common law was conditioned by a colonial strategy sensitive to the colonies’ level of endowments, exhibiting a more effective implantation of the legal system in initially sparsely populated territories with a temperate climate. This translates into a negative relationship of precolonial population density and settler mortality with legal outcomes for common-law countries. By contrast, the implantation of the French civil law was not systematically influenced by initial conditions, which is reflected in the lack of such a relationship for this legal family. The common law does not generally lead to legal outcomes superior to those provided by the French civil law when precolonial population density and/or settler mortality are high. The form of colonial rule in British colonies is found to mediate between precolonial endowments and postcolonial legal outcomes.
Citation
Oto-Peralías , D & Romero-Ávila , D 2014 , ' The distribution of legal traditions around the world : A contribution to the legal-origins theory ' , Journal of Law and Economics , vol. 57 , no. 3 , pp. 561-628 . https://doi.org/10.1086/676556
Publication
Journal of Law and Economics
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
10.1086/676556ISSN
0022-2186Type
Journal article
Collections
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