The difference was in part due to different legal traditions.
These are an important part of the legal tradition in Belgium.
Some would say that all legal traditions of the nation states can continue to exist.
Every state decides for itself, according to its legal traditions.
Chinese law is one of the oldest legal traditions in the world.
German legal tradition has in turn influenced many other countries.
If international criminal law is to work, it must draw from the best of the world's legal traditions.
Places and resources considered property were much less clearly defined than in the European legal tradition.
The answer is in the deep recesses of English legal tradition.
Canadian contract law has its foundation in the English legal tradition of the 19th and early 20th century.