In many cases, civil actions must be filed and dealt with by a competent arbitration body before being filed in a district court. Although this requirement generally only applies to low-value claims (below NOK 125,000), higher-value claims must also be submitted to an arbitration board if one of the parties is not represented by a Norwegian lawyer. Conciliation bodies are composed of non-lawyers and have two main tasks. First, they offer a facilitated mediation service to help the parties reach an amicable settlement or determine whether a claimed claim has a legitimate basis. Secondly, the conciliation bodies may issue judgements which may be appealed to the competent district court. The parties may bypass the arbitration board and submit their dispute directly to the District Court in certain circumstances, even if the dispute is of sufficient value and both parties are legally represented. It is also difficult to advise on the interpretation of laws and regulations applicable in Kuwait, as the procedure for notifying laws and court decisions is generally confidential and the system for notifying decisions when published is not as developed as in other jurisdictions. Moreover, since Kuwait is a civil law jurisdiction, there is no binding system of judicial precedents as in common law jurisdictions. The France has a civil law system based on codified laws. When deciding cases, judges must interpret the law. The lower courts are not bound by the decisions of the higher courts, although the decisions of the higher courts have some influence on the lower courts and are considered persuasive.

Chile`s basic judicial system, like many other civil justice systems, is mandated, with ordinary courts, courts of appeal and a Supreme Court. The jurisdiction of the ordinary courts is limited to smaller territorial administrative units, the courts of appeal supervise all ordinary courts in a specific larger area, and the Supreme Court exercises jurisdiction over the national territory. Special courts also play an important role in our judicial system. These include district courts, family courts, labour and labour courts, tax and customs courts, public procurement courts, environmental courts, industrial property court and cartel court. Qatari courts operate within the framework of a civil justice system. Qatar`s legal system is rooted in the Napoleonic Code, which has been adopted (via the Arab Civil Code) by many countries in the Middle East. Judges are independent of the State and their decisions are taken and implemented in accordance with the law. Hearings of Qatari courts shall be open to the public, unless the court, on its own initiative or at the request of an interested party, decides to hold them in camera. However, procedural documents shall be confidential for the parties to proceedings.

Arabic is the official language of Qatari courts and all pleadings must be in Arabic (with foreign language documents that must be translated by a court-approved translator). Although it is extremely rare for witnesses to testify in court, courts will hear testimony through an interpreter when the testimony of a non-Arab witness is required. Each of the 50 states has a similar legal system, with courts assigned to specific geographic areas (usually at the district level), one or more intermediate courts of appeals, and a state supreme court. In most states, it is at the discretion of the state Supreme Court to hear appeals from intermediate courts of appeals. In particular, the supreme courts of the states (cf. the U.S. Supreme Court) are the final arbiters of their state`s laws when there is no federal issue (e.g., the alleged unconstitutionality of a state law). In other words, there are some limited cases where a case decided by a state supreme court is brought before the U.S. Supreme Court. Even if the Constitutional Court cannot be considered part of the Hungarian judicial system in the traditional sense, it has significant litigation competence: a party may challenge a decision before the Constitutional Court if all available remedies have been exhausted and the decision is based on a law incompatible with the Hungarian Fundamental Law. or if the verdict itself is unconstitutional.

Of the twenty-one members of the Supreme Court, sixteen must be judges of the courts of appeal and five must be lawyers who have nothing to do with the judicial system. All members must be lawyers with at least fifteen years of professional experience, with an outstanding professional or academic career, and several other requirements established by law. The Belgian civil justice system is divided into three levels. At the highest level is the Supreme Court (Hof van Cassatie). These include five courts of appeal (Hof van beroep), which deal with all civil, commercial and criminal cases, and the Labour Court of Appeal (Arbeidshof), which deals with labour law issues. Below the courts of appeal are the district courts of each of the 12 districts. The district courts are the Court of First Instance (rechtbank van eerste aanleg), the Labour Court (arbeidsrechtbank) and the Commercial Court (rechtbank van koophandel). Belgium also has a specialised administrative court (Conseil d`Etat/Raad van Staat) and a Constitutional Court (Grondwettelijk Hof). The Netherlands is a civil court, which means that Dutch courts operate in accordance with the Dutch Civil Code. Unlike common law systems, where decisions are primarily based on precedents, Dutch courts deal primarily with principles and rules codified in the Civil Code, although precedents are often used to strengthen a case.

Austrian courts operate within the civil law system. This means that substantive and procedural law is largely codified. The Austrian judicial system is based on various lower courts, including 115 district courts and 20 regional courts. District courts and regional courts are courts of first instance, whose jurisdiction depends on the amount and subject matter of the dispute. The courts of second instance may be either regional courts (see above) or one of the four higher regional courts. For civil cases, the last court of appeal is the Supreme Court of Vienna. There are significant differences between the three jurisdictions. This report focuses only on the Scottish legal system; Scots law. Unlike other jurisdictions in Southeast Asia, Thailand is a civil jurisdiction. It has a three-tier judicial system which (in order of seniority): most commercial cases begin in the High Court. It consists of three divisions: Queen`s Bench; Chancellery; and family.

The Queen`s Bench Division comprises a number of specialised courts, namely the Admiralty Courts, Commercial Courts, Itinerant Commercial Courts (formerly Mercantile), Technology and Construction Courts, Administrative and Planning Tribunals, and Queen`s Bench Civil Lists. The Chancery Division deals with corporate law, partnership claims, transfers of ownership, fundamental rights, probate, patents and tax matters. The Registry Division also comprises three specialized courts: the insolvency court and the company court; the Patent Court; and the Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court (IPEC). The Financial List is a specialised list created for the handling of financial market complaints and acts on the joint initiative of the Chancery Division and the Commercial Court, dealing with claims of £50 million or more that require special knowledge of the financial markets. The Commercial and Property Courts were also established as a forum for the work of the Chancery Division and the specialized courts of the Queen`s Bench Divisions of the High Court. Judges assigned to a particular division or specialized court usually have expertise in the legal disciplines dealt with by those courts. The United States has a federal system of government with separate judicial systems at the federal and state levels. The federal government and all but one state operate under a common law system. The exception is the State of Louisiana, which is a civil jurisdiction. The following analysis describes the judicial system and practices of U.S.

federal courts, as well as most state courts. Deviations from the dominant approach are identified for five notable states (California, Delaware, Illinois, New York and Texas). Canada has a federal system of government in which legislative power is divided between the federal Parliament and the ten provincial parliaments and three territorial parliaments. Each jurisdiction has its own legal system, history and origins. There is no concept of British law. This overview describes the judicial system and practice of the Federal Court of Canada as well as most provincial and territorial courts. Deviations from the dominant approach are noted for the province of Quebec, whose legal system is different from that of all other Canadian jurisdictions. The civil courts are competent to hear all commercial and civil cases and all disputes relating to civil status (i.e.