In terms of its impact on society, the US legal system is radically different from other developed countries. In terms of the criminal records, prison inmates in the US are 700 per 1,00,000 of population compared to less than 50 in Japan.
In India, the same proportion as in the US would translate into a prison population of, say, 75 lakh. The number of lawyers in the US is equally large.
Another major difference arises on the civil side through compensation claims against providers of goods and services, successfully litigated for literally hundreds of billions of dollars. While some of these cases are farcical, others are crippling industries like tobacco and asbestos.
As Indian companies become suppliers of goods and services
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