ABSTRACT
John Bell defines legal culture as "a specific way in which values, practices, and concepts are integrated into the operation of legal institutions and the interpretation of legal texts". Law and legal practice are one aspect of the culture to which they belong. "Legal cultures" are part of more general cultures. African legal culture appears neither individualistic nor rationalist. Law is not conceived as a rational system of strict rules, but as a means of social control in order to keep or to restore peace within a community. Legal systems may have different hierarchies of legal sources, different approaches to statutory interpretation, different styles of drafting judicial decisions, and differences in the legal techniques and legal concepts used, and yet still have basically the same methodology of legal reasoning and legal argumentation and even the same practical result. Legal doctrine is the description and the systematisation of the law in one specific legal system. Comparative law is comparing such legal systems.
