Hat tip to Joe, from Wikipedia comes this interesting map of the legal systems of the world.

In brief:

• Civil Law is the most widespread legal system in the world, where the central source of law is codified in statutes passed by legislation. This can first be traced to Bablyon and later Justinian Rome, where it is the basis of the continental European code. Most legal systems that have developed independently (Soviet Union, Communist China) have developed civil law systems.
• Common Law is where systems of law are based in decisions in cases by judges. This originated in 12th century England and only exists in countries that were at one point colonies of Great Britain.
• Customary Law is a the most peculiar of the systems in that the basis of law is in fact established patterns of behavior that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting. While many countries use this to a certain extent, two countries (Mongolia and Sri Lanka) are deemed by comparative law scholars to have “customary law” systems.
• Religious Law refers to the notion of a religious documents or tradition being used as a legal source. The only countries operating such systems today are Islamic countries.

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