Description
Book SynopsisAnthropology of Law in Muslim Sudan analyses the hybridity of law systems and the plurality of legal practices in rural and urban contexts of contemporary Sudan, shedding light on the complex relation between Islam and society. It is the outcome of the international research program ANDROMAQUE (Anthropologie du Droit dans les Mondes Musulmans Africains et Asiatiques), funded by the French ANR (Agence National de la Recherche) between 2011 and 2014. Crossing two disciplinary perspectives, anthropology and law, the present volume contains original fieldwork data on contemporary urban and rural Sudan. Focusing on two major domains, land property and courts, several case studies demonstrate the relevance of an approach based on “legal practices” to underline, first, the plurality and hybridity of law systems and the relative role of the Islamic reference in Sudanese society, and, secondly, the reshaping of legal behaviors and norms after the breaking point of South Sudan's independence in 2011. Contributors are: Zahir M. Abdal-Kareem; Azza A. Abdel Aziz; Musa A. Abdul-Jalil; Munzoul M.A. Assal; Mohamed A. Babiker; Yazid Ben Hounet; Barbara Casciarri; Baudoin Dupret; Philippe Gout; Enrico Ille.
Trade Review"The authors’ intention in writing the papers included in this volume is stated to be the exploration of property phenomena; furthermore, the intension to offer an ethnographic description of the practices linked to them. Obviously trying to balance between the impact of culture and the legal environment within which the legal praxis is applied, this is a research about the legal practices in an overwhelmingly Muslim environment - not the depiction of an ‘Islamic’ culture observed through the prism of law. This is what makes this study anthropological, as far as I am concerned. Valuable tool for students of law and (of course) anthropologists." - Stavros Nikolaidis, in: Journal of Oriental and African Studies 28 (2019) "Cet ouvrage, de forme très soignée, extrêmement riche et varié dans ses ethnographies de pratiques saisies sur le vif et très homogène dans ses approches, constitue non seulement un apport marquant à l’anthropologie juridique du Soudan (pays passionnant, ne serait-ce qu’au vu des événements récents), mais encore un modèle de collaboration entre anthropologues et juristes." - François Ireton, CNRS, Paris, in: Cahiers d'etudes africaines 240 (2020)
