What type of government legal system was established and how successful was it in olmec?

Answer 1

I haven't been able to find any evidence of a legal system during the Olmec period. However, examples of a writing system found in objects such as the Cascajal Block show that they were capable of forming some form of rudimentary state and / or legal system since evidence of writing is evidence that rules, obligations, contracts etc. can be codified in some way. Unfortunately, whilst there are those that can explain that these symbolic slates and blocks have syntax and structure associated with writing (rather than being patterns or a series of pretty pictures) and that they therefore symbolise something,nobody has been able to interpret what the writing symbolises and therefore whether it can be taken as evidence of a legal system. The best answer to date is that with a written language they could codify and if they could codify then they were perhaps capable of forming some sort of state, government and legal system but there is no evidence to suggest what form or forms these would have taken or indeed that they even existed other than in the rudimentary and primitive format of elder rulers having their portraits carved out of massive lumps of rock so that everyone else had something to bow at when they crawled out of bed in the morning to dine on insects and grass.