Criminology

Introduction
The concept of law is different in different nations. The legal system in use in any country is founded on culture, religious beliefs, and political structures. There are various legal systems around the world. The most common systems in use in the contemporary society are civil, common, socialist and philosophical.
It is difficult to find a country that has a pure legal system. Around the world, legal systems are influenced by political and economic factors, creating a combination of various legal systems. These systems combine elements of the various legal systems.

Legal issues are becoming international as a result of globalization. This is the reason why it is important for all leaders to understand all the legal systems around the world. The four main legal traditions include
The common law tradition
The civil law tradition
The religious law tradition
The socialist law tradition

The common law tradition
Common law is the law that is established by judges through court decisions and comparable tribunals. This is the legal  tradition upon which the legal system of the United States and Great Britain are based. Most of other Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations use common law tradition.
Common law tradition emanated from the European feudal period, which was inherited from Great Britain in its colonial era.

Whatever is considered incorrect by a society can be considered as illegal without it necessarily having been documented as illegal. This is because the system is based on customs. Custom makes models which then become policies.

The other aspect, equity, mirrors the common lawful tradition s sense of fairness in that incorrect  decisions cannot be made so that customs can be protected

HA common law system gives great precedence to common law based on the common belief that it is not fair to handle common facts in a different way on different occasions.
If the court finds out that the current case is fundamentally different from all previous cases, a situation refers to as a  matter of first impression , judges have the power to establish law by making precedent. Therefore the new decision that has been made precedent is capable of binding future court cases.
The body of precedence is the one that is referred to as the common law, and it is the one that binds future decisions. The main source of law under this system are the decisions of the judges that are considered precedent.

The civil law
The civil law tradition originated from the legal system of Ancient Rome, It is the system upon which the  legal systems of the rest of Europe are based. The laws in this system are codedwritten down statutes.

The source of law according to  this tradition is written down or coded statutes. The basic principle of this legal system is codification.

The codes are established in general abstract principles which direct the exercise of legal judgment.
Any time a new code is ratified, it annuls those that precede it. The incoming does not gain legality due to the fact that it is similar in any way to those that came before it. It gains legitimacy after being integrated and assimilated into the most recent code. It exists on encoded convention.

The foundation of this system is to provide every person with accessible and codified collection of statutes applying to them, and which all the judges must base their decisions on concerning any case.
The role of the judges under this system is to apply the written laws into specific cases.

Basically, the civil law system follows from abstractions, formulation of common principles and distinguishing substantive regulations from procedural regulations.
The primary source of law in the civil law tradition is a compendium of laws, organized by subject matter and in some pre-arranged order.

Religious legal tradition
In a religious law tradition, a religious document is used as a source of a legal system. The methodology used in deriving the legal system from religious documents vary from religion to the other.
Religious legal system is based on religious beliefs. The source of law according to this system is the religious documents.

Law, from the religious perspective also encompasses ethics and morality that are necessary to being Godly.
Halakha is one example of religious law observed by the Jewish. There is also the Hindu law, Sharia that is observed by Muslims and the Cannon law which applies to the Christians.

Sharia and Cannon laws are codified just like the civil law tradition while Sharia uses precedent just like the common law.

Socialist legal tradition
Socialist legal system is the system of law employed in communist countries. This system is founded on the civil law tradition, with key variations and additional concepts from the Marxist-Leninist ideologies.

The key amendment is the provision for most assets to be possessed by the government or by co-operatives. It also advocates for presence of special courts and statutes for government ventures.

The socialist law was common in the communist nations before the end of the cold war. Currently, even the countries where it is applied are slowly turning to civil law system.

The socialist law, just like the civil law system has a civil code and courts that applies this code.
The approach to law under this system is the same as that of the civil law tradition.
vv Contn iSimilarities and differences in substantive law in each of the four traditions
Substantive law in relation to criminal justice describes what comprises a criminal act.
The four legal traditions have definitions of what constitutions an illegal act. Many criminal activities cut across the four legal traditions.

The difference is in the basis of description according to each legal system.

The common law basis for this description is custom. The civil law as well as the socialist law bases their description on the written code. The religious law bases its description on religious documents and doctrines.

Similarities and differences in procedural law in each of the four traditions
The procedural law deals with the way that the substantive law is implemented. The four legal traditions have their own ways of implementing the substantive law. The difference is in the ways that this is carried out.
In the common law tradition, the element of stare decisis links the process to the fundamental precept of custom. Judges are supposed to reach their decisions based on the way similar decisions were reached previously.

To strike a balance between custom and equity, the common law system follows the theory of particularization in procedural law.

Particularization allows judges to be flexible in separating a particular case from the previous cases that were similar to it. In this way, they are allowed freedom to decide a case based on fairness instead of strictly based on custom. This allows a judge to avoid reaching an unjust decision in an effort to preserve customs.

Under the civil law tradition, judges glean through from the law the most suitable decision through rational reasoning. If this is not possible, theoretically, it is usually the judge s fault for not understanding the statutes correctly or the legislature for not providing the judge with adequate code.

In a matter of fact, the judge under the civil law tradition cannot get an exact code that is capable of addressing the specific facts of the matter at hand. This is expected because the legislature cannot be expected to predict every possible situation. The intention of the civil law tradition is to deny the judge any opportunity to  make law .

What happens in reality is that the judge gets the most applicable code and then shows in writing how he rationally got to the facts of a specific case from that code and then reached to a decision.

The socialist law, being derived from the civil law, is implemented in the same way as the civil law is.
Religious law is divine law. It is implemented by religious leaders.

The Sharia law for example, is implemented on the basis of the Qur an and Sunnah. The verdicts are made by the Ulema who are the jurists. They use consensus, analogical assumptions, investigation and general practice to obtain legal opinions.

The cannon law is observed as natural law, but motivated by the word of God. It is implemented by the legislative power of the church. These include bishops, pope and the British Parliament for the Church of England. Their decisions are based on the dictates of the bible and other written statutes that govern the church.

Conclusion
During this period of globalization, legal matters have become international. Gone are the days when nations used to handle territorial matters. Social, economical and political matters have gone beyond geographical boundaries.

To be in a position to deal with these changes, leaders should be able to understand all the different legal systems that govern different counties of the world. More research should be undertaken to find out how these systems operate.