How Historic Legal Systems have Influenced Canadian
By: Sherjeel Khan
Greek Law
What was it?
How it worked?
Was a Direct Democray
Had Jury Duty
Juries were randomly chosen
and were paid at the end
Draco's Law
Codified law written on wooden
planks for the public to see
Punishments were extremely harsh
to help reduce crime
Significance in Canadian Law
First ever form of democracy
to ever exist
Every man would vote and
participate in politics
Females did not have the right to
vote or participate in politics
People believed woman did not
have any place in politics
Jury
Citizens were randomly chosen
to help keep everything unbiased
Determined guilt and sentencing
by use of jury system
Similar to jurries
of today
Without this first form of democracy
we most likely would not be the
country we are today
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Mosaic Law
What was it?
How it worked?
Was written in the Bible,
more specifically the Toraq
Includes the
10 commandments
Which are;
- I am the LORD thy God.
- No other gods before me.
- No graven images or likenesses.
- Not take the LORD's name in vain.
- Remember the sabbath day.
- Honour thy father and thy mother.
- Thou shalt not kill.
- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Was created in 2350 BC
Included laws about family laws,
tort laws, and criminal law
Significance in Canadian Law
Similar to Code of Hammurabi in that
it stressed punishment and retribution
Many parts of the 10 Commandments are
used in our modern day criminal laws
Was used to help form the
bases of criminal law
Roman Law
What was it?
How it worked?
12 tablets
Established basic legal procedures
and punishments
Was created in 451 BC
Made on bronze tablets
Was in favor of social
status instead of equality
People of high social status would
be treat better in court,
while people of low social
status would be treated as less in courts
Justinian's Code
Under orders of Justinian, legal juries spent 16 years
clarifying, codifying, and eliminating contradictions in
many of the roman laws
Code created basis of Civil Law
Which is adopted by western societies like Canada
Significance in Canadian Law
Helped created proper basis in Civil law
Created uniform legal rules
Code of
Hammurabi
What was it?
How it worked?
Established standards for commercial interactions
and punishments to meet the requirements of justice
282 Codified set of laws
Was carved into a massive black stone
Also depicted a image of Shamash
(a Sun God) giving Hammurabi a staff and a ring
Symbolizes the power
to administer the law
Back then people were extremely religious
and did not want to anger the gods
Included laws such as bigamy, incest,
kidnapping, adultery and theft
Laws were pretty harsh and
could be punishable with death
First ever set of laws that were codified
Significance in Canadian Law
One of the earliest written
forms of codes to date
Retribution
Laws based of concept of
punishment and vengeance
Like an "eye for an
eye" type of justice
Restitution
Idea that the victim of a crime should be
given by compensation by the offender