Suriname
Civil law
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Suriname is a civil-law country whose legal system comes from the Netherlands. It has a Constitution of 1987 and a Civil Code of 1990 in the Dutch style, and its law recognises the customary land rights of Maroon and Indigenous communities.
Updated October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
Where the law comes from
- The Constitution of 1987, the highest law
- The Civil Code (1990) and other codes, based on Dutch models
- Customary law of Maroon and Indigenous communities, in local matters
- Decisions of the Court of Justice
The main courts
- The Court of Justice, the highest court
- Cantonal courts (kantongerechten), for smaller cases
- Specialised courts and boards for some matters
Becoming a lawyer
A law degree from the Anton de Kom University or from the Netherlands, and admission by the Court of Justice.
What may surprise you
- It is a Dutch-speaking country in South America.
- The Inter-American Court has held that Maroon communities hold rights to their traditional land, in the Saramaka case.
- It borrowed its new Civil Code from the modern Dutch code.
Related systems
How this country is classified
The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Suriname 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 Suriname, consult a lawyer qualified there. Report a mistake.
