Guam

• The Organic Act of Guam of 1950, which serves as its constitution, and federal law
• Laws made by the Guam Legislature, collected in the Guam Code Annotated
• American common law, and decisions of the Supreme Court of Guam

• The Supreme Court of Guam, the highest local court
• The Superior Court of Guam, the main trial court
• The District Court of Guam, a federal court, with appeals to the Ninth Circuit

A law degree, usually from the United States, a bar exam and admission by the Supreme Court of Guam.

• It has two parallel court systems: local courts and a federal court.
• People born there are United States citizens, but cannot vote in presidential elections.
• The Supreme Court of Guam was created in 1996, replacing earlier federal review.

United States, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Palau, Philippines

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Guam as: Common 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.

Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cook Islands, Dominica, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, India, Ireland, Jamaica.

• JuriGlobe: world legal systems (University of Ottawa)

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.