Saint-Barthélemy

• The Organic Law on the overseas collectivities, which sets out local powers
• Decisions of the Territorial Council in its fields, including tax and land use
• French law, including the Civil Code, in other matters

• The Court of Cassation in Paris, the final court for ordinary cases
• The Court of Appeal in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe
• A local court, linked to the courts of Guadeloupe

A French law degree and the French bar course, with admission to a French bar, often in Guadeloupe.

• It sets its own tax rules, and French income tax does not apply in the usual way.
• It was Swedish until 1878, and some old Swedish traces remain in place names and records.
• It is not part of the European Union's customs and tax area in the same way as mainland France.

France, Saint Martin (French part), Sint Maarten

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Saint-Barthélemy 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.

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.