Legal Imperialism: Its Enduring Impact on Colonial and Post-Colonial Judicial Systems

Abstract

This article examines the expansion of several major families of law as a concomitant of military conquest, colonial aggrandizement, and/or economic penetration—the attributes of legal imperialism—and some of the long-term consequences of these historical patterns. The families investigated are the Anglo-American common law, Romanistic, Nordic, Germanic, Socialistic, and Islamic.