Burundi

• The Constitution of 2005, the highest law
• Codes and statutes in the Belgian and French tradition
• Customary law, including the Bashingantahe, a council of elders that settles disputes

• The Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court
• Courts of appeal and high courts (tribunaux de grande instance)
• Residence courts (tribunaux de résidence) for local cases

A law degree and professional training, then registration with the Bar of Burundi.

• Customary mediation by elders remains a recognised source of social peace.
• The Constitution sets quotas for ethnic and gender balance in public bodies.
• The legal system follows Belgian models, though the country is now also close to English-speaking East Africa.

Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belgium, France

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Burundi as: Civil law, Customary. It names the systems in order of importance.

The map colours a country by the first-named system, and shows both civil-law and common-law countries as “mixed”. It is a simplification, and real systems are rarely pure.

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria.

• JuriGlobe: world legal systems (University of Ottawa)
• Constitute Project: constitution of Burundi

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.