Understanding The Informal Justice System

Informal forms of justice such as mediation have been greeted enthusiastically as progress from the punishment model of justice -- and criticised as broadening rather than narrowing the reach of the criminal justice system. Here the contributors assess the evidence and re-appraise the theory of informalism.

The Palestinian Legal System is often characterised as complex, since it consists of different layers of colonial codes and rules: Ottoman, British, Jordanian, and Egyptian laws, Israeli military orders and Palestinian legislation. Complicating matters further, there are at least two segments of legal and judicial life that coexist in Palestine:1 Codified laws and regulations, which include the religious laws (i.e. Sharia), and an informal system of conflict resolution based on customs (urf). The term 'informal justice' refers to a social phenomenon widespread throughout the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, comprising the settlement of disputes between citizens outside the framework of the regular or formal (nizami) courts. It is a phenomenon which exists in a number of Arab countries. The book presents a deep socio-legal investigation and places legal and tribal practices in the general social context. It also strives to understand the social logic and general principles that govern informal justice and to explain the reasons for continued use of the system. It therefore does not start off from a position that simply emphasises the need for an official unified legal system that guarantees the rule of law, however imperative this is; rather, it is based on the principle that positions and recommendations must be based on a detailed understanding of the way informal justice works in real life, through the actions and positions of real social actors (ordinary people, formal and informal actors). The book provides a chronology of public institutions produced by the various regimes which have exerted their sovereignty on Palestine. The chronology allows the non specialist reader to understand the evolution of the system through those periods until the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and effect of the Israeli occupation on the system. The researchers involved in the study used field research to disclose the extent of the relationship and interaction between informal justice and the various social sectors and their institutions. This was included in-depth interviews with actors connected to informal justice; it also included collecting relevant documents from the different areas in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. The book points to ingenious distinctions and contradictions between collective and individual approaches of law and rights when dealing at the same time with informal and official justice and by introducing a dose of political philosophy in the socio-legal approach, the researchers of the study draw the readers' attention on sensitive issues dealt with in Palestine today and challenge traditional perceptions on the nature of the rule of law and building state institutions in a conflict situation.

How do ordinary people experience and make sense of the informal justice system? Drawing on original data with British and German users of Ombudsmen— an important institution of informal justice, Naomi Creutzfeldt offers a nuanced comparative answer to this question. In so doing, she takes current debates on procedural justice and legal consciousness forward. This book explores consciousness around ‘alternatives’ to formal legality and asks how situated assumptions about law and fairness guide people's understandings of the informal justice system. Creutzfeldt shows that the everyday relationship that people have with the informal justice system is shaped by their experiences and expectations of the formal legal system and its agents. This book is an innovative theoretical and empirical statement about the future prospects for informal justice in Europe.

Winner of the Hart–SLSA Book Prize 2024 This book explores the narratives and experiences of people in the Global South as they encounter the impact of international law in their lives. It looks specifically at approaches to international migrations and the law, as states in the Global South confront migration-related challenges. Taking a case study approach, drawn from the experiences of undocumented and displaced migrants in China and Nigeria, the book shows how informal justice systems not only exist but are upheld. With an innovative analysis drawing both on intersectionality and a Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), it moves away from the classic international versus regional and domestic law approach to reveal the experience of the Third World in relation to the law. This fascinating study will appeal to international law, human rights and immigration scholars, as well as those in the field of development studies.

Laura Grenfell critically evaluates how the rule of law is contextualized and promoted in states where customary law is prevalent.

Comparative law is a common subject-matter of research and teaching in many universities around the world, and the twenty-first century has aptly been termed 'the era of comparative law'. This Cambridge Handbook of Comparative Law presents a truly global perspective of comparative law today. The contributors are drawn from all parts of the world to provide different perspectives on how we understand the 'law' and how it operates in practice. In substance, the Handbook contains 36 chapters covering a broad range of topics, divided under the following headings: 'Methods of Comparative Law' (Part I), 'Legal Families and Geographical Comparisons' (Part II), 'Central Themes in Comparative Law' (Part III); and 'Comparative Law beyond the State' (Part IV).