Angola Legal System

On 22 April, the Platform for Inclusion, an activist group for people with disabilities, organized an event in Luanda to raise awareness about discrimination against people with disabilities. However, police intercepted protesters in wheelchairs and banned them from using posters and continuing the planned route. According to Amnesty International, the police exposed the protesters to violence. A member of the Platform for Inclusion, Adao Ramos, criticized the government for failing to implement the Accessibility Act and for failing to adequately protect people with disabilities. According to police, they stopped the protest because the Platform for Inclusion did not comply with the legal obligation to inform the authorities 72 hours before a demonstration. To deal with legal and regulatory risks, investors are offered: despite the law, it was difficult for people with disabilities to access public or private institutions, and it was difficult for these people to participate in the education system and therefore to find a job. There have been no known prosecutions for discrimination in the workplace. Definition: This entry contains a description of a country`s legal system. For a number of countries, a declaration on judicial review of legislative acts is also included.

The legal systems of almost all countries are generally based on elements of five main types: civil law (including French law, Napoleonic code, Roman-Dutch law and Spanish law); Common law (including U.S. law); customary law; mixed or pluralistic law; and religious law (including Islamic law). Another type of legal system – international law, which governs the conduct of independent nations in their relations with each other – is also discussed below. The following list describes these legal systems, the countries or regions of the world where these systems are applied, and a brief explanation of the origins and main characteristics of each system. Civil law – The most widespread type of legal system in the world, applied in various forms in about 150 countries. The civil law system, also known as European continental law, is derived primarily from the Roman Corpus Juris Civilus, a collection of laws and interpretations of law compiled under the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I between 528 and 565 AD. The main feature of civil law systems is that laws are organized into systematic written codes. In civil law, the sources recognized as authoritative are mainly legislation – especially codifications in constitutions or laws promulgated by governments – and secondarily custom. In some countries, civil law systems are based on more than one code. Common Law – A type of legal system, often synonymous with “English common law”, which is the system of England and Wales in the United Kingdom and is also in force in about 80 countries that were once part of the former British Empire or were influenced by it.

English common law reflects biblical influences as well as remnants of legal systems imposed by early conquerors such as the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Normans. Some jurists attribute the formation of the English common law system to King Henry II (r. 1154-1189). Until the time of his reign, the laws that were common in the various seigneurial and ecclesiastical (ecclesiastical) jurisdictions of England were administered locally. Henry II established the king`s court and determined that the laws were “common” for the entire English Empire. The basis of English common law is a “legal precedent” – called stare decisis, which means “to stick to things decided”. In the English common law system, court judges are largely bound in their decisions by rules and other doctrines developed – and supplemented over time – by judges of earlier English courts. Customary law – A type of legal system that serves as the basis or has influenced current laws in about 40 countries – mainly in Africa, but some in the Pacific Islands, Europe and the Middle East. Customary law is also referred to as “primitive law”, “unwritten law”, “indigenous law” and “people`s law”. There is not a single history of customary law as found in Roman civil law, English common law, Islamic law or the Napoleonic civil code. The first legal systems of human society were common and generally developed in small farming and hunter-gatherer communities.

As the term suggests, customary law is based on the customs of a community. The common characteristics of customary systems are that they are rarely written, that they embody an organized set of rules that govern social relations, and that they are agreed upon by the members of the community. Although these legal systems provide for sanctions for violations of the law, the solution is conciliatory rather than punitive. A number of African states practiced customary law centuries before colonial influences. After colonization, these laws were written and incorporated to varying degrees into the legal systems imposed by their colonial powers. European Union Law – A sub-discipline of international law known as “supranational law” in which the rights of sovereign nations are limited in relation to each other. Also known as European Union law or COMMUNITY law, it is the unique and complex legal system that works with the laws of the 27 member states of the European Union (EU). Like the Länder, the EU legal system ensures compliance by Member States due to the decentralised political nature of the Union. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), established by the Treaty of Paris in 1952, has been largely responsible for the evolution of EU law. The basic principles of European Union law are: subsidiarity – the idea that cases are handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralised competent authority; proportionality – the EU can only act to the extent necessary to achieve its objectives; Delegation – The EU is a union of Member States and all its powers are granted voluntarily by its members; legal certainty – requires that legislation be clear and precise; and precautionary principle – a moral and political principle that states that if an act or policy may cause serious or irreversible harm to the public or the environment, in the absence of a scientific consensus that no harm would occur, the burden of proof is on those who would advocate the action.

French Law – A type of civil law that is the legal system of the France. The French system also serves as the basis for other legal systems in about 50 countries, particularly in North Africa, the Middle East and French territories and dependencies. French written civil law is mainly a codified or systematic written civil law. Before the French Revolution (1789-1799), the France did not have a uniform national legal system. Laws in the northern regions of present-day France were mainly local customs based on privileges and exceptions granted by feudal kings and lords, while Roman law prevailed in the southern regions. The introduction of the Napoleonic Civil Code during the reign of Napoleon I in the first decade of the 19th century. He brought about important reforms to the French legal system, many of which are still part of the current legal structure of the France, although all have been extensively modified or reformulated to please a modern nation. French Law distinguishes between “public law” and “private law”. Public law refers to the government, the French Constitution, public administration and criminal law. Private law covers matters between individuals or companies. The most recent changes to the French legal system – introduced in the 1980s – were the decentralization laws, which transferred the authority of centrally appointed government officials to locally elected representatives of the people. International law – The law of the international community or the set of customary rules and treaty rules recognized as legally binding by States in their relations with each other.

International law differs from other legal systems in that they are primarily sovereign political entities. There are three different disciplines of international law: international law, which governs relations between provinces and international entities and includes contract law, the law of the sea, international criminal law and international humanitarian law; Private international law dealing with jurisdiction; and supranational law – a legal framework in which countries are bound by regional agreements in which the laws of member countries are considered unenforceable in contradiction with supranational laws.