Rwanda

• The Constitution of 2003, as amended, the highest law
• Codes and statutes, in the Belgian and French tradition
• Customary mediation, through local committees called Abunzi
• Decisions of the Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court, the final court
• The High Court
• Intermediate courts and primary courts, plus Abunzi mediation committees at the local level

A law degree and a bar course, then registration with the Rwanda Bar Association.

• It shifted from French to English in part of its legal system, so law students now study in English.
• Local mediators, the Abunzi, must try to settle many small disputes before a court case.
• The community gacaca courts, set up after the 1994 genocide, have finished their work.

Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belgium

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Rwanda 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)
• Constitute Project: constitution of Rwanda

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.