Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Law of Puerto Rico

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The legal system of Puerto Rico is a mix of the civil law and the common law systems.

Contents

Language

Puerto Rico is the only current U.S. possession whose legal system operates primarily in a language other than American English: namely, Spanish. However, because the U.S. federal government operates primarily in English, the result is that all Puerto Rican attorneys must be bilingual in order to litigate in English in U.S. federal courts and to litigate federal preemption issues in Puerto Rican courts.

Puerto Rico had about a million residents at the time it became part of the United States, who ferociously resisted conversion to English before the U.S. government finally gave up in the 1940s. By way of contrast, the Spanish-speaking settlers in the vast territories obtained from Mexico after the Mexican-American War were promptly swamped by English-speaking American settlers, which is why the state governments that emerged in those territories all primarily use English today.

Judicial system

The judicial branch is headed by the Chief Justice of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, which is the only appellate court required by the Constitution. All other courts are created by the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico.

As Puerto Rico is under United States sovereignty, there is also a Federal District Court for the island.

References

Law of Puerto Rico Wikipedia