Gabon
Civil law
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Gabon is a civil-law country with a legal system inherited from France. It has separate top courts for ordinary and administrative cases, a Constitutional Court, and business law shared with other OHADA countries.
Updated October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
Where the law comes from
- The Constitution, the highest law
- Codes and statutes in the French tradition
- OHADA Uniform Acts for business law
- Customary law, in some family and land matters
The main courts
- The Court of Cassation and the Council of State
- The Constitutional Court, and a Court of Accounts
- Courts of appeal and first-instance courts
Becoming a lawyer
A law degree and professional training, then registration with the Bar of Gabon.
What may surprise you
- It copies the French model of dual court systems.
- Business law comes mostly from OHADA, not from national codes.
- A Constitutional Court rules on elections as well as on laws.
Related systems
How this country is classified
The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Gabon 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.
Other countries in the same family
Sources
- OHADA: Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa
- JuriGlobe: world legal systems (University of Ottawa)
Sources last reviewed: October 2026.
TheLawToKnow Tools’s Legal Families Atlas is an educational overview. It simplifies on purpose, and it is not legal advice. For a real legal question about Gabon, consult a lawyer qualified there. Report a mistake.
