The Justice of Islam Comparative Perspectives on Islamic La and Society [Paperback]

One out of five people in the world today lives subject to Islamic law, but stereotypes of rigid doctrine or harsh punishment obscure an understanding of the values and style of reasoning that characterize everyday lslamic adjudication. By considering its larger social and cultural context, this book shows Islamic law to be a kind of common law system: justice is sought through a careful assessment of persons, more than facts, and justice resides not in equality but in a quest for equivalence.

Introduction
Part One: The socio-logic of Islamic legal reasoning
1. Equity and discretion in Islamic law
2. Islamic case-law and the logic of consequence
3. Islamic law as common law: Power, culture, and the reconfiguration of legal taxonomies
4. Responsibility and compensatory justice in Arab culture and law
Part Two: In and out of court
5. From courtroom to courtyard: Law and custom in popular legal culture
6. On the docket: Changing conventions in a Muslim court, 1965-1995
7. Local justice: A day in an alternative court
8. Who do you trust? Structuring confidence in Arab law and society
Part Three: Justice past and present
9. Islamic concepts of justice and injustice
10. Muhammad's sociological jurisprudence
11. Private thoughts, public utterances: Law, privacy, and the consequences for community
12. Islam and Islamic culture in the courts of the United States
References
Index

Laurence Rosen is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Princeton University.