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Justice and Tyranny, Law and the State inthe Middle East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

Charles Lindholm
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Extract

In his influential work, Max Weber argued that theMiddle East was fatally hampered in the developmentof a modern civil society by the existence ofarbitrary Qadi justice, based onthe personalized decisions of a judiciary reliantonly on case law for precedent and lacking any formof rational organization. This individualisticjudicial structure (or lack of structure) allowedauthoritarian regimes to subvert the courts fortheir own purposes, destroying the possibility ofthe development of an autonomous citizenry;meanwhile, in Europe the evolution of a rationallycodified legal system acted as a check ongovernmental tyranny and provided a space for theevolution of independent civic organizations.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , November 1999 , pp. 375 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1999

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