class, and trends of that were apparent with the Maya. Convicted criminals and poor commoners sold themselves as slaves and were often sacrificed when their owners died in order for the slaves to serve in the afterlife. Perhaps a law like Roman law would have been founded to rectify the situation that was present in the Maya civilization, but the Spanish conquered the entire region in 1697, pushing the Maya to work as peasants on farms.As the Maya civilization was taken over by the Spanish, it is likely that Spaniards used martial law to govern the society. Martial law is used when necessary and is used to suppress insurrection, riot or disorder . It can be argued that martial law does not in fact do all the things that it claims to do. The citizens of the society do not necessarily have to agree with the situation that presents itself when martial law is implemented, but rather they just have to live with whatever occurs. Many current legal systems, like the United States for instance, are legislated and regulated by elected government officials who, because they are elected, most be responsive to the views and thoughts of the people. Martial law on the other hand, is not accountable to anyone else. Since the military is behind the leader, it is unlikely that a force strong enough would present itself as opposition to topple the regulatory body. Therefore, the martial law is in place until either the military overthrows the leader, or the leader changes his view. A society that implements this form of law is one that is likely hostile and untrusting in that they need to be governed by force. Another not so widely used form of law is Islamic law. Once again, like Canon law, a society that employs this type of law is one that is religious, since their view is that God’s law is supreme. One of the countries that uses this law is Iran. In a recent case before the Iranian court, a German man was sentenced to death because he committe...
