Legal Systems of the World: A Political, Social, and Cultural Encyclopedia is the only comprehensive reference work geared to the ordinary reader and legal scholar alike that answers these critical questions. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, this exhaustive four-volume set, with nearly 400 entries, explores the structure, operation, and history of legal and judicial systems in every country on earth, every state in the Union, and every province of Canada.

That alone would make it a must-have for every library. But there’s more. The international team of legal scholars assembled by Editor Herbert M. Kritzer, professor of political science and law at the University of Wisconsin, also analyzes transnational judicial bodies such as the World Court and the European Court of Human Rights, examines alternative legal systems from Roman to Islamic law, and explains universal legal institutions and concepts, from law schools to constitutional review.

Features

• 400 A–Z entries on places from Scotland to Suriname, concepts and terms like legal realism and retribution, and key documents such as the Writ of Certiorari
• Entries by an international team of over 350 contributors
• Highly readable maps of every country in the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe
• Nearly 275 diagrams illustrating the legal structure of various states and countries
• A glossary of hundreds of key terms like "adversarialism" and "sharia"