Legal Systems
Religious Law
Also Known As Sacred Law
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Religious law is a family of legal systems in which law derives its authority from a sacred text or a divinely inspired tradition, interpreted by religious scholars or clergy, rather than from a secular legislature or accumulated judicial precedent alone. Its major members include Halakha in Judaism, Sharia in Islam, canon law in Christianity, and classical Hindu law, each with its own sources, interpretive schools and historical development. This atlas treats religious law only as a system family: the doctrinal detail of each religious legal tradition, its sacred sources, schools of jurisprudence and lived practice, is the Divinity Atlas's own subject, per the family seam set by ruling 631, and is not duplicated here.
Facts
Example JurisdictionsPersonal status law in Israel (Halakha); Saudi Arabia and Iran (Sharia as the basis of state law); the Vatican and canon law tribunals; personal law for Hindus and Muslims within India's own legal system. 1 Primary Source of LawReligious scripture and the authoritative interpretation of religious scholars or clergy, applied either as the whole of state law or, more commonly today, within a defined domain such as family and personal status law. 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
Includes
Canon law is one of the named member systems of the Religious Law family per its own entity-description.
Halakha is one of the named member systems of the Religious Law family per its own entity-description; JuriGlobe classification of legal families places Jewish law among the world religious legal systems.
Sharia is one of the named member systems of the Religious Law family per its own entity-description; JuriGlobe classifies Muslim law as its own legal family within the broader religious-law grouping.
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