El Salvador

• The Constitution of 1983, the highest law
• Codes and statutes in the Spanish civil-law tradition
• Decisions of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court of Justice, with a Constitutional Chamber and other chambers
• Courts of second instance (cámaras)
• First-instance courts and peace courts (juzgados de paz)

A law degree and authorisation by the Supreme Court.

• The Constitutional Chamber is part of the Supreme Court, not a separate court.
• The amparo, a fast remedy for rights, is a central tool.
• Judicial institutions have been at the centre of political debate, so the formal structure is described here.

Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists El Salvador as: Civil law. 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 El Salvador

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.