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Introduction

Introduction customary law in north africa and the arab east 1 © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2006 Islamic Law and Society 13, 1 Also available online – www.brill.nl THEME ISSUE: CUSTOMARY LAW IN NORTH AFRICA AND THE ARAB EAST INTRODUCTION FRANK H. STEWART The phrase “customary law” has a fine archaic ring about it. Modern law attaches almost no significance to custom, and the same can be said even of the more sophisticated pre-modern legal systems— Islamic law, for example, or classical Roman law. Little has been published in recent years on the subject of customary law, and much of that little has appeared in publications so obscure that they are practically underground. One might therefore be forgiven for believing that such law was important, if ever, only in the remote past. But the truth is quite different. Customary law 1 retains an important role in large regions of the world, and certainly in most of the Arab countries, with which the articles in this issue are concerned. There are two main reasons for this. One is the ineffectiveness of the state, which in many places fails to perform certain important legal function s . In these cases, broadly http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Islamic Law and Society Brill

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2006 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0928-9380
eISSN
1568-5195
DOI
10.1163/156851906775275466
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

customary law in north africa and the arab east 1 © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2006 Islamic Law and Society 13, 1 Also available online – www.brill.nl THEME ISSUE: CUSTOMARY LAW IN NORTH AFRICA AND THE ARAB EAST INTRODUCTION FRANK H. STEWART The phrase “customary law” has a fine archaic ring about it. Modern law attaches almost no significance to custom, and the same can be said even of the more sophisticated pre-modern legal systems— Islamic law, for example, or classical Roman law. Little has been published in recent years on the subject of customary law, and much of that little has appeared in publications so obscure that they are practically underground. One might therefore be forgiven for believing that such law was important, if ever, only in the remote past. But the truth is quite different. Customary law 1 retains an important role in large regions of the world, and certainly in most of the Arab countries, with which the articles in this issue are concerned. There are two main reasons for this. One is the ineffectiveness of the state, which in many places fails to perform certain important legal function s . In these cases, broadly

Journal

Islamic Law and SocietyBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2006

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