The term customary originates from the Latin “consuetudinarĭus”. Customary is applied to indicate everything that comes from customs. Customary refers to what is established by the customs and traditions of a population, to the point of becoming law when establishing norms for coexistence between human beings. The importance of the word customary lies in the fact that its application designates something that is respected not only for its imposition, but it is something that has been gestated for entire generations, so it turns from being something that was part of everyday life to be a fully established law or legal norm.
One of the most common examples of customary law is the " Common Law " or "Anglo-Saxon Law", it is defined by a series of traditional foundations established in England at the time of the colony. Anglo-Saxon Law was established from a series of sentences converted by the magistrates of the time into jurisprudence, which is currently widely respected by the countries that still adopt it as a doctrine to preserve their system of laws. It is a clearly customary law because it was founded on the basis of a need for expansion of the British colony. In the following map we can see the countries that base their system of laws on customary law:
One of the elements of law in which customary law is most used is the judicial and criminal system, in which different parameters are established to define guilt and convictions. When a penalty is applied based on customs, it is because the behavior of the population has led the different organizations to be aware of and value the importance of the customs of that place. Of course there are customs that seen from the "western point of view" are extreme but this already exceeds the cultural limits which there are international organizations willing to defend them to preserve them for their high " educational level”For the region. There are countries like Israel that lack a constitution, so they rely exclusively on a series of customs to define their cultural order.
