The Epistle on Legal Theory is the oldest surviving Arabic work on Islamic legal theory and the foundational document of Islamic jurisprudence. Its author, Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi?i (d. 204 H/820 AD), was the eponym of the Shafi?i school of legal thought, one of the four rites in Sunni Islam. This fascinating work offers the first systematic treatment in Arabic of key issues in Islamic legal thought. These include a survey of the importance of Arabic as the language of revelation, principles of textual interpretation to be applied to the Qur?an and prophetic Traditions, techniques for harmonizing apparently contradictory precedents, legal epistemology, rules of inference, and discussions of when legal interpretation is required. The author illustrates his theoretical claims with numerous examples drawn from nearly all areas of Islamic law, including ritual law, commercial law, tort law, and criminal law. The text thus provides an important window into both Islamic law and legal thought in particular and early Islamic intellectual history in general . This new translation by a leading scholar of Shafi?i and his thought makes available in lucid, modern English one of the earliest complete works on Islamic law—one that is centrally important for the formation of Islamic legal thought and the Islamic legal tradition.
This fascinating work offers the first systematic treatment in Arabic of key issues in Islamic legal thought.
Legal transplantation and reform in the name of globalisation is central to the transformation of Asian legal systems. The contributions to "Examining Practice, Interrogating Theory: Comparative Legal Studies in Asia" analyse particular legal changes in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The contributions also concurrently critically analyse the utility of scholarly developments in comparative legal studies, particularly discourse analysis; regulatory theory; legal pluralism; and socio-legal approaches, in the study of Asian legal systems. While these approaches are regularly invoked in the study of transforming European legal systems, the debate of their relevance and explanatory capacity beyond the European context is recent. By bringing together these diverse analytical tools and enabling a comparison of their insights through Asian empirical case studies, this book makes an invaluable contribution to the debates concerning legal change and the methods by which it is analysed globally, and within Asia.
By bringing together these diverse analytical tools and enabling a comparison of their insights through Asian empirical case studies, this book makes an invaluable contribution to the debates concerning legal change and the methods by which ...
This pioneering Research Handbook with contributions from renowned experts, provides a comprehensive scholarly framework for analyzing the theory and history of international law. Given the multiplication of theoretical approaches over the last three decades, and attendant fragmentation of scholarly efforts, this edited collection presents a useful doctrinal platform that will help academics and students to see the theory and history of international law in its entirety, and to understand how interdependent various aspects of the theory and history of international law really are. Being the first comprehensive analysis of theory and history of international law, this unique book will be of great benefit to academics and students of international politics, ethics and philosophy.
This pioneering Research Handbook with contributions from renowned experts, provides a comprehensive scholarly framework for analyzing the theory and history of international law.
An ideal introductory law textbook, From Law to Order is the collaborative effort of two authors with extensive backgrounds in teaching and field practice. It examines the many facets of our legal system including: What is Law?; Making Law; Federal and State Courts; Criminal Law; Civil Law and Juvenile Justice; The Law and Social Change; Comparative Law--including Islamic Law; and Women and the Law. Discussion questions and vocabulary follow each chapter. An instructor's manual with test questions is available.
An ideal introductory law textbook, From Law to Order is the collaborative effort of two authors with extensive backgrounds in teaching and field practice.
Where should the line between serious criminal fraud and lawful 'puffing' be drawn? What constitutes tax evasion beyond mere 'tax avoidance'? What separates obstruction of justice from 'zealous advocacy', or insider trading from 'savvy investing'? Can we meaningfully distinguish bribery from 'campaign contributions', or perjury from 'wiliness' on the witness stand? A look at some of the most high profile white collar crime cases in recent history will quickly reveal that there can sometimes be a fine line between serious fraudulent conduct and behaviour which, though it might be shrewd, crafty, or even devious, is not ultimately criminal. According to the traditional conception of the criminal law, penal sanctions should be used as a 'last resort', applicable only to conduct that is truly and unambiguously blameworthy. White-collar crime poses a serious challenge to this traditional view. This is the first book to use the tools of moral and legal theory as a meansto examine a range of specific white-collar offenses, aiming to develop and apply a methodology that will allow us to make meaningful distinctions between genuine white collar criminality and merely aggressive business behavior. Particular attention is paid to the concept of moral wrongfulness, which is described in terms of violations of a range of familiar, but nevertheless powerful, moral norms that inform and shape the leading white-collar criminal offenses - norms against not only lying, cheating, and stealing, but also coercion, exploitation, disloyalty, promise-breaking, and defiance of law. It is through such analysis that the whole moral fabric of white-collar crime is brought into sharp relief.
"In the first in-depth study of its kind, Stuart Green exposes the ambiguities and uncertainties that pervade the white-collar crimes, and offers an approach to their solution.
Legal pluralism involves the coexistence of multiple forms of law. This includes state law, international law, transnational law, customary law, religious law, indigenous law, and the law of distinct ethnic or cultural communities. Legal pluralism is a subject of discussion today in legal anthropology, legal sociology, legal history, comparative law, international law, transnational law, jurisprudence, and law and development scholarship. This book places legal pluralism in historical context going back to the Medieval period, describes the origins of legal pluralism in postcolonial countries and its implications today, identifies manifestations of legal pluralism within Western societies, discusses contemporary transnational legal pluralism, identifies problems with current theoretical accounts of legal pluralism, and articulates an approach to legal pluralism that avoids theoretical problems and is useful for social scientists, theorists, and law and development scholars and practitioners.
This book places legal pluralism in historical context going back to the Medieval period, describes the origins of legal pluralism in postcolonial countries and its implications today, identifies manifestations of legal pluralism within ...
Hinduja examines the social, psychological, criminological, and behavioral aspects of Internet crime. Guided by the most prominent general theories of criminal behavior, he explores music piracy - an all too-common form of cybercrime - by attempting to answer a number of questions. Does stress and strain play a role? What about low self-control? Is music piracy learned within intimate social groups? Do rationalizations and justifications contribute to participation? Is the behavior strengthened or weakened through rewards and punishments? Hinduja then discusses his findings in detail, with the intention of framing ideas into feasible practices that can accommodate the benefits of the new digital economy, the music industry, and the perpetually growing wired world.
Hinduja examines the social, psychological, criminological, and behavioral aspects of Internet crime.
Islamic legal theory (usūl al-fiqh) is literally regarded as ’the roots of the law’ whilst Islamic jurists consider it to be the basis of Islamic jurisprudence and thus an essential aspect of Islamic law. This volume addresses the sources, methods and principles of Islamic law leading to an appreciation of the skills of independent juristic and legal reasoning necessary for deriving specific rulings from the established sources of the law. The articles engage critically with relevant traditional views to enable a diagnostic understanding of the different issues, covering both Sunnī and Shī’ī perspectives on some of the issues for comparison. The volume features an introductory overview of the subject as well as a comprehensive bibliography to aid further research. Islamic legal theory is a complex subject which challenges the ingenuity of any expert and therefore special care has been taken to select articles for their clarity as well as their quality, variety and critique to ensure an in-depth, engaging and easy understanding of what is normally a highly theoretical subject.
The Ashgate Islamic Law series brings together the best and most influential contributions from this debate and in so doing ... such as Islamic family law, Islamic property law, Islamic law of finance, Islamic criminal law and so forth.
Ambitious legal thinkers have become mesmerized by moral philosophy, believing that great figures in the philosophical tradition hold the keys to understanding and improving law and justice and even to resolving the most contentious issues of constitutional law. They are wrong, contends Richard Posner in this book. Posner characterizes the current preoccupation with moral and constitutional theory as the latest form of legal mystification—an evasion of the real need of American law, which is for a greater understanding of the social, economic, and political facts out of which great legal controversies arise. In pursuit of that understanding, Posner advocates a rebuilding of the law on the pragmatic basis of open-minded and systematic empirical inquiry and the rejection of cant and nostalgia—the true professionalism foreseen by Oliver Wendell Holmes a century ago. A bracing book that pulls no punches and leaves no pieties unpunctured or sacred cows unkicked, The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory offers a sweeping tour of the current scene in legal studies—and a hopeful prospect for its future.
They are wrong, contends Richard Posner in this book.
