Nicaragua
Civil law
Compare Nicaragua with another country →
Nicaragua is a civil-law country with a Constitution of 1987. Its Caribbean coast has two autonomous regions, whose Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities have a legal right to communal land.
Updated October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
Where the law comes from
- The Constitution of 1987, as amended, the highest law
- Codes and statutes in the Spanish civil-law tradition
- The Autonomy Statute for the Caribbean Coast regions
- Decisions of the Supreme Court of Justice
The main courts
- The Supreme Court of Justice, with several chambers, including a constitutional chamber
- Courts of appeal
- District courts and local courts
Becoming a lawyer
A law degree and authorisation by the Supreme Court.
What may surprise you
- The autonomy law of the Caribbean coast recognises communal property of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.
- A leading case at the Inter-American Court, Awas Tingni, concerned these land rights.
- The Supreme Court has both ordinary and constitutional chambers, not a separate constitutional court.
Related systems
How this country is classified
The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Nicaragua 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.
Other countries in the same family
Sources
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 Nicaragua, consult a lawyer qualified there. Report a mistake.
