Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T22:57:23.621Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Revisiting Critical Legal Pluralism: Normative Contestations in the Afghan Courtroom•

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2017

Nafay CHOUDHURY
Nafay CHOUDHURY*
Affiliation:
Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper revisits the concept of critical legal pluralism, which treats the individual as a site of normativity with the capacity to create legal knowledge. To help operationalize the usage of critical legal pluralism, I propose a methodological approach that places the individual’s ability to makes choices along a continuum. On one side of continuum, legal pluralism can be viewed as facilitating fully discrete choices that ascribe to one legal order or another. On the other side, the ability to make individual choices is curtailed because of the presence of a hegemonic legal order. This simple continuum helps to shed light on the complex considerations that affect individual choices, which in turn affect how various legal orders are legitimated. The paper then considers how critical legal pluralism can enrich the discussion on the legal system of Afghanistan, focusing on interviews with two Afghan justice actors: a former judge and an active defence lawyer.

Keywords

Afghanistancritical legal pluralismjudiciaryIslamic lawcustomary law
Type
Law and Society in South Asia
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , May 2017 , pp. 229 - 255
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

•

I thank Werner Menski for his thorough review of an earlier draft. Farhana Rahman provided helpful comments on the final paper. Siddiqullah Reshtya and Ahmed Shakir Morid provided me useful information on Afghanistan’s judiciary. I also benefitted from the feedback of five law students at the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF): Meherafroz Ghani, Gharsanay Amin, Abdul Naser Rahmani, Sana Ahmadi, and Ahmad Ratib Nazari. A draft of this paper was presented at the Juris Diversitas Annual Conference at the University of Limerick, where I received rich feedback from the conference participants. Any errors are solely my own.

*

PhD Researcher, Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. Previously Assistant Professor of Law at the AUAF. LL.B./B.C.L., McGill University; MA, Queen’s University; BA, McGill University.

References

Afshar, Mandana K.R. (2006) “The Case of an Afghan Apostate: The Right to a Fair Trial between Islamic Law and Human Rights in the Afghan Constitution,” in A. von Bogdandy & R. Wolfrum, eds., Max Planck Yearbook on United Nations Law, Leiden: Koninklijke Brill N.V., 591–605.Google Scholar
Ahmed, Faiz (2007) “Shari’a, Custom, and Statutory Law: Comparing State Approaches to Islamic Jurisprudence, Tribal Autonomy, and Legal Development in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” 7 Global Jurist 1.Google Scholar
Arnaud, André-Jean (1995) “Legal Pluralism and the Building of Europe,” in H. Petersen & H. Zahle, eds., Legal Policentricity: Consequences of Pluralism in Law , Dartmouth: Aldershot, 149–169.Google Scholar
Balagangadhara, S.N. (2012) Reconceptualizing India Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Barfield, Thomas (2008) “Culture and Custom in Nation-Building: Law in Afghanistan.” 60 Maine Law Review 354–359.Google Scholar
Barfield, Thomas (2010) Afghanistan: A Cultural And Political History, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
BBC.com (2004) “Muslim Girl Shaves Head Over Ban,” online <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3708444.stm> (last accessed 13 February 2017).+(last+accessed+13+February+2017).>Google Scholar
Benda-Beckmann, Franz von (2002) “Who’s Afraid of Legal Pluralism?” 47 Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 37–82.Google Scholar
Bennett, Tom W. (2004) Customary Law in South Africa, Lansdowne: Juta and Company Ltd.Google Scholar
Berman, Paul S. (2002) “The Globalization of Jurisdiction.” 151 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 311–529.Google Scholar
Berman, Paul S. (2007) “Global Legal Pluralism.” 80 Southern California Law Review 1155–1237.Google Scholar
Berman, Paul S. (2014) “From Legal Pluralism to Global Legal Pluralism,” in Richard Nobles & David Schiff, eds., Law, Society and Community: Socio-Legal Essays in Honour of Roger Cotterrell, Oxford and New York: Routledge, 255–271.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi (1994) The Location of Culture, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Boudahrain, Abdellah (1997) “In Support of an Informed Symbiosis of Islam and the Law,” in Roger Blanpain, ed., Law in Motion , The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 57–66.Google Scholar
Bowen, John (2003) Islam, Law, and Equality in Indonesia: An Anthropology of Public Reason, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bowen, John (2008) Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space, Princeton: Princeton University.Google Scholar
Burke-White, William W. (2004) “International Legal Pluralism.” 25 Michigan Journal of International Law 963–979.Google Scholar
Chaudhary, Muhammad A. (1999) Justice in Practice: Legal Ethnography of a Pakistani Punjabi Village, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chiba, Masaji (1989) Legal Pluralism: Towards a General Theory Through Japanese Legal Culture, Tokyo: Shinzansha International.Google Scholar
Chiba, Masaji (1998) “Other Phases of Legal Pluralism in the Contemporary World.” 11 Ratio Juris 228–245.Google Scholar
Choudhury, Nafay (2010) “Reconceptualising Legal Pluralism in Afghanistan.” 28 Windsor Review of Legal & Social Issues 21–52.Google Scholar
Choudhury, Nafay (2014) “Pluralism in Legal Education at the American University of Afghanistan.” 37 Suffolk Transnational Law Journal 249–288.Google Scholar
Cover, Robert (1983) “Nomos and Narrative.” 97 Harvard Law Review 6–68.Google Scholar
De Lauri, Antonio (2013) “Corruption, Legal Modernisation and Judicial Practice in Afghanistan.” 37 Asian Studies Review 527–545.Google Scholar
Diab, Rashid (2016) Shades of Sulh, Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dupret, Baudouin, Berger, Maurits& al-Zwaini, Laila, eds. (1999) Legal Pluralism in the Arab World , The Hague: Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
Ehrlich, Eugen (1936) Fundamental Principles of the Sociology of Law, translated by W. Moll, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, & Silbey, Susan S. (1998) The Common Place of Law, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Feener, Michael (2013) Shari’a and Social Engineering: The Implementation of Islamic Law in Contemporary Aceh, Indonesia, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, Noah (2008) The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gang, Rebecca (2010) Community-Based Dispute Resolution Processes in Balkh Province, Kabul: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.Google Scholar
Gang, Rebecca (2011) Community-Based Dispute Resolution Process in Kabul City, Kabul: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford (1983) Local Knowledge, New York: Basic Books, Inc.Google Scholar
Glenn, H. Patrick (2010) Legal Traditions of the World: Sustainable Diversity in Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Griffiths, John (1986) “What Is Legal Pluralism.” 24 Journal of Legal Pluralism & Unofficial Law 1–55.Google Scholar
Griffiths, John (2005) “The Idea of Sociology of Law and Its Relation to Law and to Sociology.” 8 Current Legal Issues 49–68.Google Scholar
Hallaq, Wael B. (2007) “What Is Shari’a?” 12 Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law 151–180.Google Scholar
Hart, Herbert L.A. (2012) The Concept of Law, 3rd edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Susan (1998) Pronouncing and Persevering: Gender and the Discourses of Disputing in an African Islamic Court, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hooker, Michael B. (1975) Legal Pluralism: An Introduction to Colonial and Neo-Colonial Laws, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hussain, Jamila (2011) “More Than One Law for All: Legal Pluralism in Southeast Asia.” 7 Democracy and Security 374–389.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group (2010) Reforming Afghanistan’s Broken Judiciary, Kabul: International Crisis Group.Google Scholar
Kidder, Robert L. (2002) “Exploring Legal Culture in Law-Avoidance Societies,” in June Starr & Mark Goodale, eds., Practicing Ethnography, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 87–107.Google Scholar
Kleinhans, Martha-Marie, & Roderick A., Macdonald (1997) “What Is a Critical Legal Pluralism.” 12 Canadian Journal of Law & Society 25.Google Scholar
Lukito, Ratno (2013) Legal Pluralism in Indonesia: Bridging the Unbridgeable, Oxford: Routledge.Google Scholar
Macdonald, Roderick A. (2011) “Custom Made for a Non-Chirographic Critical Legal Pluralism.” 26 Canadian Journal of Law and Society 301–327.Google Scholar
Meininghaus, Esther (2007) “Legal Pluralism in Afghanistan.” ZEF Working Papers Series—Amu Darya Series Paper No. 72.Google Scholar
Menski, Werner (2006) Comparative Law in a Global Context: The Legal Systems of Asia and Africa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Menski, Werner (2011) “Flying Kits in a Global Sky: New Models of Jurisprudence.” 7 Socio-Legal Review 1–22.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle (1988) “Legal Pluralism.” 22 Law & Society Review 869–896.Google Scholar
Merryman, John H., & Pérez-Perdomo, Rogelio (2007) The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Europe and Latin America, Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mir-Hosseini, Ziba (1993) Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law—Iran and Morocco Compared, London and New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd.Google Scholar
Mohd Safian, Yasmin H. (2010) “Necessity (darura) in Islamic Law: A Study with Special Reference to the Harm Reduction Programme in Malaysia,” PhD dissertation, University of Exeter.Google Scholar
Moore, Sally F. (1978) “Law and Social Change: The Semi-Autonomous Social Field as an Appropriate Subject of Study,” in Sally F. Moore, ed., Law as Process: An Anthropological Approach, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 54–81.Google Scholar
Moore, Sally F. (2005) “Certainties Undone: Fifty Turbulent Years of Legal Anthropology, 1949–1999,” in Sally F. Moore, ed., Law and Anthropology: A Reader, Malden, MA & Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 346–367.Google Scholar
Ndulo, Muna (2011) “African Customary Law, Customs, and Women’s Rights.” 18 Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 87–120.Google Scholar
Nelken, David, & Feest, Johannes, eds. (2001) Adapting Legal Cultures, Oxford and Portland: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Nelson, Matthew (2011) In the Shadow the Shari’ah: Islam, Islamic Law, and Democracy in Pakistan, London: Hurst & Co.Google Scholar
Osanloo, Arzoo (2009) The Politics of Women’s Rights in Iran, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Petersen, Hanne, & Zahle, Henrik, eds. (1995) Legal Policentricity: Consequences of Pluralism in Law, Dartmouth: Aldershot.Google Scholar
Pospisil, Leonard (1971) Anthropology of Law: A Comparative Perspective, New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Pospisil, Leonard (1978) “The Structure of Society and Its Multiple Legal System,” in P.H. Gulliver, ed., Cross-Examinations: Essays in Memory of Max Gluckman, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 96–109.Google Scholar
Reimann, Mathias (2002) “Progress and Failure of Comparative Law in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century.” 50 American Journal of Comparative Law 671–700.Google Scholar
Rferl.org (2006) ‘Afghanistan: HRW Still Concerned About Apostasy Law,’ online <http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1067197.html> (last accessed 13 February 2017).+(last+accessed+13+February+2017).>Google Scholar
Roudometof, Victor (2005) “Transnationalism, Cosmopolitanism and Glocalization.” 53 Current Sociology 113–135.Google Scholar
Ruby, Tabassum (2006) “Listening to the Voices of the Hijab.” 29 Women’s Studies International Forum 54–66.Google Scholar
Santos, Boaventura de S. (2002) Toward a New Common Sense: Law, Science and Politics in the Paradigmatic, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shah, Prakash (2005) Legal Pluralism in Conflict: Coping with Cultural Diversity in Law, London: Routledge-Cavendish.Google Scholar
Shahar, Ido (2016) Legal Pluralism in the Holy City: Competing Courts, Forum Shopping, and Institutional Dynamics in Jerusalem, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Solanki, Gopika (2011) Adjudication in Religious Family Laws: Cultural Accommodation, Legal Pluralism and Gender Equality in India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Swenson, Geoffrey, & Sugerman, Eli (2011) “Building the Rule of Law in Afghanistan: The Importance of Legal Education.” 3 Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 130–146.Google Scholar
Tamanaha, Brian Z. (1993) “The Folly of the ‘Social Scientific’ Concept of Legal Pluralism.” 20 Journal of Law and Society 192–217.Google Scholar
Tamanaha, Brian Z. (1995) “An Analytical Map of Social Scientific Approaches to the Concept of Law.” 15 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 501–535.Google Scholar
Tamanaha, Brian Z. (2000) “A Non-Essentialist Version of Legal Pluralism.” 27 Journal of Law and Society 296–321.Google Scholar
Tamanaha, B.Z. (2008) “Understanding Legal Pluralism: Past to Present, Local to Global.” 30 Sydney Law Review 375–411.Google Scholar
Tamanaha, Brian Z., Sage, Caroline Mary& Woolcock, Michael J.V. (2012) Legal Pluralism and Development: Scholars and Practitioners in Dialogue, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wasti, Tahir (2009) The Application of Islamic Criminal Law in Pakistan: Sharia in Practice, Leiden and Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
Watts, John H., & Roberson, Cliff (2014) Law and Society: An Introduction, Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Weinbaum, Marvin G. (1980) “Legal Elites in Afghan Society.” 12 International Journal of Middle East Studies 39–57.Google Scholar
Winn, Jane K. (1994) “Relational Practice and the Marginalization of Law: Information Financial Practices of Small Businesses in Taiwan.” 28 Law & Society Review 193–232.Google Scholar
Woodman, Gordon (1998) “Ideological Combat and Social Observation: Recent Debate about Legal Pluralism.” 42 Journal of Legal Pluralism 21–59.Google Scholar
Xiaotong, Fei (1992) From the Soil, Berkeley: Berkeley University of California Press.Google Scholar
Yassari, Nadjma, & Saboory, Mohammad Hamid (2010) “Sharia and National Law in Afghanistan,” in Jan Michel Otto, ed., Sharia and National Law: Comparing the Legal Systems, Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.Google Scholar
Zaman, Mohammad Q. (2002) The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar