North Korea

• The Socialist Constitution, as amended, the highest law
• Laws passed by the Supreme People's Assembly and its Standing Committee
• Decrees and directives of the ruling party and state organs

• The Supreme Court, called the Central Court
• Provincial, city and county courts, called people's courts
• Special courts, including military courts

Lawyers are organised under state-controlled bodies. There is no independent bar in the Western sense.

• The Constitution describes courts as accountable to the Supreme People's Assembly.
• Its criminal code and other codes have been revised several times, but access to texts is limited.
• Its legal system was shaped by Soviet and Chinese models, and by Japanese colonial law before 1945.

China, South Korea, Vietnam, Russia, Laos

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists North Korea 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)

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.